# Advanced Control Strategies for Securing UAV Systems: A Cyber-Physical Approach
## 4 Conclusions  
This paper presents a robust sliding mode control (SMC) framework specifically tailored to enhance the security and resilience of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in challenging environments. The integration of adaptive and fault-tolerant mechanisms into  
Figure 6: Performance data of the Nuntius helicopter controlled by a secured SMC during a 50-min flight. The flight includes transitions between manual and automatic control modes, with significant altitude changes at around minute 12 and minute 35. The figure evaluates the controller’s performance in maintaining stability and handling these transitions. the SMC design ensures that the UAV maintains stability and performance even in the presence of disturbances, faults, and cyber-physical attacks. The successful implementation and simulation on a helicopter UAV platform, Nuntius-02, demonstrate the practical effectiveness of the proposed control strategy. Simulation results show that the SMC-based control system effectively maintains the UAV's stability across various scenarios, including significant disturbances and simulated attacks. The adaptive mechanisms were particularly effective in dynamically adjusting control parameters in real time, thereby mitigating the effects of unexpected anomalies. Moreover, the fault-tolerant aspects of the control strategy ensured continued operation despite simulated component failures, with the UAV consistently following its intended flight path and maintaining the desired altitude and attitude. Also, the figures provided demonstrate the effectiveness of the SMC-based control framework in handling high-frequency disturbances: Figures 2 and 3 highlight the controller's performance when random noise is applied to the yaw angle, simulating high-frequency disturbances. The SMC maintained stability, with minimal deviations in key flight parameters. Figure 5 shows the helicopter's response to a sudden change in the roll direction. The controller effectively managed this disturbance, maintaining stable flight. Figures 4 and 6 illustrate the system's robustness during transitions between manual and automatic modes, including sharp altitude changes, demonstrating the SMC's ability to handle rapid disturbances. These results confirm the controller's robustness against high-frequency disturbances, ensuring stable UAV operation under challenging conditions. Despite the advancements presented in this study, some limitations warrant further exploration. The reliance on simulation environments for testing the SMC-based framework may not fully capture the complexities and unpredictabilities of real-world UAV operations. Thus, experimental validation in real-world settings is necessary to confirm the robustness and effectiveness of the framework under diverse and dynamic conditions. Additionally, the study's focus on a specific UAV platform may limit the generalizability of the findings, suggesting a need to apply this framework across different UAV configurations. Future work could also expand the range of tested attack scenarios and incorporate more sophisticated anomaly-detection algorithms. Moreover, the development of hybrid control strategies, combining SMC with other advanced control techniques, could offer enhanced robustness and flexibility, paving the way for more secure and reliable UAV operations in increasingly complex and hostile environments. Conceptualization, M.S.A.I., P.F.P., D.G. and A.R.R. ; methodology, M.S.A.I., P.F.P., D.G. and A.R.R. ; software, M.S.A.I. and A.R.R. ; validation, M.S.A.I., P.F.P., D.G. and A.R.R. ; formal analysis, P.F.P. and A.R.R. ; investigation, M.S.A.I. and D.G. ; resources, P.F.P. and A.R.R. ; data curation, M.S.A.I., P.F.P., D.G. and A.R.R. ; writing--original draft preparation, M.S.A.I. and A.R.R. ; writing--review and editing, M.S.A.I., P.F.P., D.G. and A.R.R. ; visualization, M.S.A.I., P.F.P., D.G. and A.R.R. ; supervision, D.G. and A.R.R. ; project administration, P.F.P. and A.R.R. ; funding acquisition, A.R.R.