ChainQ: A Blockchain-Assisted Deep Q-Learning Framework for Trust-Aware UAV Swarm Offloading

The use of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) swarms in mission-critical applications is growing rapidly. In these scenarios, secure and energy-efficient task offloading is an important challenge, especially when UAVs operate in dynamic and uncertain environments. This paper presents ChainQ, a new framework that combines blockchain-based trust management with deep Q-learning (DQN) to support intelligent and secure task offloading in UAV networks. In ChainQ, each UAV learns offloading strategies based on both network conditions and the trustworthiness of other UAVs. Trust scores are maintained using a lightweight blockchain, and smart contracts are used to enforce basic rules for task delegation. Simulation results demonstrate that ChainQ significantly improves reliability and energy-delay trade-off compared to standard DQN, particularly under uncertain UAV behavior, confirming its practicality for secure UAV swarm operations.