Detection and Mitigation of Biasing Attacks on Distributed Estimation Networks

The paper considers a problem of detecting and mitigating biasing attacks on networks of state observers targeting cooperative state estimation algorithms. The problem is cast within the recently developed framework of distributed estimation utilizing the vector dissipativity approach. The paper shows that a network of distributed observers can be endowed with an additional attack detection layer capable of detecting biasing attacks and correcting their effect on estimates produced by the network. An example is provided to illustrate the performance of the proposed distributed attack detector.Comment: Accepted for publication in Automatic

Resilient State Estimation for Control Systems Using Multiple Observers and Median Operation

This paper addresses the problem of state estimation for linear dynamic systems that is resilient against malicious attacks on sensors. By “resiliency” we mean the capability of correctly estimating the state despite external attacks. We propose a state estimation with a bank of observers combined through median operations and show that the proposed method is resilient in the sense that estimated states asymptotically converge to the true state despite attacks on sensors. In addition, the effect of sensor noise and process disturbance is also considered. For bounded sensor noise and process disturbance, the proposed method eliminates the effect of attack and achieves state estimation error within a bound proportional to those of sensor noise and disturbance. While existing methods are computationally heavy because online solution of nonconvex optimization is needed, the proposed approach is computationally efficient by using median operation in the place of the optimization. It should be pointed out that the proposed method requires the system states being observable with every sensor, which is not a necessary condition for the existing methods. From resilient system design point of view, however, this fact may not be critical because sensors can be chosen for resiliency in the design stage. The gained computational efficiency helps real-time implementation in practice

Distributed fault detection and estimation in cyber-physical systems subject to actuator faults

The fault detection and estimation problems for the physical layer network in the cyber-physical systems with unknown external disturbances are investigated in this study. Both bias fault and loss of efficiency scenarios are considered for the actuators. Based on the adaptive threshold method and sliding mode observer approach, a distributed fault detection observer (DFDO) is constructed for each physical layer node to detect the occurrence of actuator faults. Then a relative global estimation error system is defined for the distributed fault estimation observer (DFEO). Compared with the existing results, the proposed DFEO can provide the estimation for not only the actuator bias faults but also the actuators’ efficiency factors under the impact of exogenous disturbance with two gain dynamic update processes. Finally, the feasibility and effectiveness of the given DFDO and the DFEO are examined by Lyapunov stability method and the simulation results

A Distributed Observer-Based Cyber-Attack Identification Scheme in Cooperative Networked Systems under Switching Communication Topologies

This paper studies an approach for detecting cyber attacks against networked cooperative systems (NCS) that are assumed to be working in a cyber-physical environment. NCS are prone to anomalies both due to cyber and physical attacks and faults. Cyber-attacks being more hazardous given the cooperative nature of the NCS may lead to disastrous consequences and thus need to be detected as soon as they occur by all systems in the network. Our approach deals with two types of malicious attacks aimed at compromising the stability of the NCS: intrusion attacks/local malfunctions on individual systems and deception/cyber-attacks on the communication between the systems. In order to detect and identify such attacks under switching communication topologies, this paper proposes a new distributed methodology that solves global state estimation of the NCS where the aim is identifying anomalies in the networked system using residuals generated by monitoring agents such that coverage of the entire network is assured. A cascade of predefined-time sliding mode switched observers is introduced for each agent to achieve a fast estimate of the global state whereby the settling time is an a priori defined parameter independently of the initial conditions. Then, using the conventional consensus algorithm, a set of residuals are generated by the agents that is capable of detecting and isolating local intrusion attacks and communication cyber-attacks in the network using only locally exchanged information. In order to prove the effectiveness of the proposed method, the framework is tested for a velocity synchronization seeking network of mobile robots