Cyber Security Assessment of the Robot Operating System 2 for Aerial Networks

Best Student Paper, 2nd PlaceThe article of record as published may be found at https://doi.org/10.1109/SYSCON.2019.88368242019 IEEE International Systems Communications Conference (SYSCON)The Robot Operating System (ROS) is a widely adopted standard robotic middleware. However, its preliminary design is devoid of any network security features. Military grade unmanned systems must be guarded against network threats. ROS 2 is built upon the Data Distribution Service (DDS) standard and is designed to provide solutions to identified ROS 1 security vulnerabilities by incorporating authentication, encryption, and process profile features, which rely on public key infrastructure. The Department of Defense is looking to use ROS 2 for its military-centric robotics platform. This paper seeks to demonstrate that ROS 2 and its DDS security architecture can serve as a functional platform for use in military grade unmanned systems, particularly in unmanned Naval aerial swarms. In this paper, we focus on the viability of ROS 2 to safeguard communications between swarms and a ground control station (GCS). We test ROS 2’s ability to mitigate and withstand certain cyber threats, specifically that of rogue nodes injecting unauthorized data and accessing services that will disable parts of the UAV swarm. We use the Gazebo robotics simulator to target individual UAVs to ascertain the effectiveness of our attack vectors under specific conditions. We demonstrate the effectiveness of ROS 2 in mitigating the chosen attack vectors but observed a measurable operational delay within our simulations.This work was funded and sponsored by the Office of Naval Research via the Consortium for Robotics and Unmanned Systems Education and Research (CRUSER) at NPS

Traffic Anomaly Detection and Analysis for 5G Enabled Autonomous Vehicle Systems

Seed Research Program 2023. A Quad, describing CRUSER Seed Research Program funded research.CRUSER Funded ResearchFY23 Funded Research ProposalConsortium for Robotics and Unmanned Systems Education and Research (CRUSER

Resource Allocation in Relay Enhanced Broadband Wireless Access Networks

The use of relay nodes to improve the performance of broadband wireless access (BWA) networks has been the subject of intense research activities in recent years. Relay enhanced BWA networks are anticipated to support multimedia traffic (i.e., voice, video, and data traffic). In order to guarantee service to network users, efficient resource distribution is imperative. Wireless multihop networks are characterized by two inherent dynamic characteristics: 1) the existence of wireless interference and 2) mobility of user nodes. Both mobility and interference greatly influence the ability of users to obtain the necessary resources for service. In this dissertation we conduct a comprehensive research study on the topic of resource allocation in the presence of interference and mobility. Specifically, this dissertation investigates the impact interference and mobility have on various aspects of resource allocation, ranging from fairness to spectrum utilization. We study four important resource allocation algorithms for relay enhanced BWA networks. The problems and our research achievements are briefly outlined as follows. First, we propose an interference aware rate adaptive subcarrier and power allocation algorithm using maximum multicommodity flow optimization. We consider the impact of the wireless interference constraints using Signal to Interference Noise Ratio (SINR). We exploit spatial reuse to allocate subcarriers in the network and show that an intelligent reuse of resources can improve throughput while mitigating the impact of interference. We provide a sub-optimal heuristic to solve the rate adaptive resource allocation problem. We demonstrate that aggressive spatial reuse and fine tuned-interference modeling garner advantages in terms of throughput, end-to-end delay and power distribution. Second, we investigate the benefits of decoupled optimization of interference aware routing and scheduling using SINR and spatial reuse to improve the overall achievable throughput. We model the routing optimization problem as a linear program using maximum concurrent flows. We develop an optimization formulation to schedule the link traffic such that interference is mitigated and time slots are reused appropriately based on spatial TDMA (STDMA). The scheduling problem is shown to be NP-hard and is solved using the column generation technique. We compare our formulations to conventional counterparts in the literature and show that our approach guarantees higher throughput by mitigating the effect of interference effectively. Third, we investigate the problem of multipath flow routing and fair bandwidth allocation under interference constraints for multihop wireless networks. We first develop a novel isotonic routing metric, RI3M, considering the influence of interflow and intraflow interference. Second, in order to ensure QoS, an interference-aware max-min fair bandwidth allocation algorithm, LMX:M3F, is proposed where the lexicographically largest bandwidth allocation vector is found among all optimal allocation vectors while considering constraints of interference on the flows. We compare with various interference based routing metrics and interference aware bandwidth allocation algorithms established in the literature to show that RI3M and LMX:M3F succeed in improving network performance in terms of delay, packet loss ratio and bandwidth usage. Lastly, we develop a user mobility prediction model using the Hidden Markov Model(HMM) in which prediction control is transferred to the various fixed relay nodes in the network. Given the HMM prediction model, we develop a routing protocol which uses the location information of the mobile user to determine the interference level on links in its surrounding neighborhood. We use SINR as the routing metric to calculate the interference on a specific link (link cost). We minimize the total cost of routing as a cost function of SINR while guaranteeing that the load on each link does not exceed its capacity. The routing protocol is formulated and solved as a minimum cost flow optimization problem. We compare our SINR based routing algorithm with conventional counterparts in the literature and show that our algorithm reinforces routing paths with high link quality and low latency, therefore improving overall system throughput. The research solutions obtained in this dissertation improve the service reliability and QoS assurance of emerging BWA networks

Interference Aware Resource Allocation in Relay Enhanced Broadband Wireless Access Networks

The article of record as published may be found at https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-2533-4.ch002The use of relay nodes to improve the performance of broadband wireless access (BWA) networks ha

Study of Security Primitives for the Robot Operating System (ROS) of UAV Swarms [video]

TechCon2017 (CRUSER)Presented by Dr. Preetha Thulasiraman: NPS Electrical & Computer Eng.Includes slidesThe global presence of the Navy’s unmanned systems makes it increasingly vulnerable to outside threats. Cybersecurity must be addressed. A continuation of work stated in FY16, the research established baseline encryption and authentication algorithms to deal with communication link vulnerabilities and was a stepping stone to developing a comprehensive security architecture for the UAV system. This research proposes to take those baseline algorithms and apply them to the other major vulnerability of the UAV network - the Robot Operating System (ROS). While ROS has been heavily used in the NPS swarm, its security has not been characterized. For ROS to be considered a tool for government applications, its security and vulnerabilities must be investigated. Of particular interest is the plain text nature of ROS messages. This makes it easy for third parties to spoof and decipher messages. This has serious implications in the context of a UAV swarm. Thus far, security is not part of the ROS design. There has been limited work in the literature to study elements of ROS security including authentication and encryption. However, there is not a cohesive security framework that has been developed nor has ROS been studied from the context of a military UAV swarm and all the implications and constraints that come with that. The scope of this work is focused on security threats to ROS including: 1) the lack of authentication: malicious actors can fiddle with the system and inject messages (similar to man in the middle attacks); 2) the lack of encryption: unauthorized listeners can gather information; and 3) lack of authorization: remote clients can access the entire ROS system without proof of permission (this is usually coupled with authentication). In this talk, we present preliminary solutions to each of these threats and provide theoretical avenues for implementation.NPS CRUSE

Enabling Secure Group Communications for UAV Swarms using Distributed Key Management

FY2016 Funded ProposalResearch Proposa

ROS 2 Cyber Network Performance Using Scalable Quality of Service and Security Classifications

CRUSER Funded ResearchFY20 Funded Research ProposalCRUSER has funding to support NPS Faculty research focused on any aspect of unmanned systems/robotics related research.  Researchers are selected based upon presentations at our spring Technical Continuum (TechCon) or our annual Call for Proposals.  Proposals that support concepts from our current innovation thread are encouraged, but all research related to unmanned systems or robotics will be considered.Consortium for Robotics and Unmanned Systems Education and Research (CRUSER

Cybersecurity Evaluation and Testing of the ROS 2 Architecture for Networked UAV Systems

CRUSER Funded ResearchFY19 Funded Research ProposalCRUSER has funding to support NPS Faculty research focused on any aspect of unmanned systems/robotics related research.  Researchers are selected based upon presentations at our spring Technical Continuum (TechCon) or our annual Call for Proposals.  Proposals that support concepts from our current innovation thread are encouraged, but all research related to unmanned systems or robotics will be considered.Consortium for Robotics and Unmanned Systems Education and Research (CRUSER

Study of Security Primitives for the Robot Operating System (ROS) of UAV Swarms

CRUSER Funded ResearchFY17 Funded Research ProposalCRUSER has funding to support NPS Faculty research focused on any aspect of unmanned systems/robotics related research.  Researchers are selected based upon presentations at our spring Technical Continuum (TechCon) or our annual Call for Proposals.  Proposals that support concepts from our current innovation thread are encouraged, but all research related to unmanned systems or robotics will be considered.Consortium for Robotics and Unmanned Systems Education and Research (CRUSER