Experimental analysis of denial-of-service attacks on teleoperated robotic systems

Abstract

Applications of robotic systems have had an explosive growth in recent years. In 2008, more than eight million robots were deployed worldwide in factories, battlefields, and medical services. The number and the applications of robotic systems are expected to continue growing, and many future robots will be controlled by distant operators through wired and wireless communication networks.The open and uncontrollable nature of communication media between robots and operators renders these cyber-physical systems vulnerable to a variety of cyber-security threats, many of which cannot be prevented using traditional cryptographic methods. A question thus arises: what if teleoperated robots are attacked, compromised or taken over?In this paper, we systematically analyze cyber-security attacks against Raven II R , an advanced teleoperated robotic surgery system. We classify possible threats, and focus on denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, which cannot be prevented using available cryptographic solutions. Through a series of experiments involving human subjects, we analyze the impact of these attacks on teleoperated procedures. We use the Fitts' law as a way of quantifying the impact, and measure the increase in tasks' difficulty when under DoS attacks.We then consider possible steps to mitigate the identified DoS attacks, and evaluate the applicability of these solutions for teleoperated robotics. The broader goal of our paper is to raise awareness, and increase understanding of emerging cyber-security threats against teleoperated robotic systems.

Legal, regulatory, and ethical frameworks for development of standards in artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous robotic surgery

“…Cyber security is another enormously increasing area of general concern that applies to surgical robots. Evidently, robotic surgery can be hacked, as was shown recently by Bonaci et al (2017). 9 This recent hacking exploit is interesting as it concerns seizing control of a teleoperated surgical robot, rather than dealing with issues potentially arising more speculatively for higher levels of robot autonomy.…”

“…Evidently, robotic surgery can be hacked, as was shown recently by Bonaci et al (2017). 9 This recent hacking exploit is interesting as it concerns seizing control of a teleoperated surgical robot, rather than dealing with issues potentially arising more speculatively for higher levels of robot autonomy. The greater the autonomy of the robot, the more avenues that exist for attack, and the questions of responsibility become rather different in such cases (See next section on Responsibility).…”

Experimental Evaluation of Stealthy Attack Detection in a Robot

“…For this purpose, two geometric attack scenarios, (2) and (4), were selected. These scenarios caused medium damage to the robot.…”

“…However, they do have a small to medium effect in the physical robot, i.e., some of the attacks, e.g.,geometric attack in scenario (2), are able to move the robot to as close as 0.2m from the wall. This is due to spurious sensor readings in Amigobot perhaps due to a threshold of sensor firing below which the sensor does not return reliable data.…”

“…Although an initial testing of an anomaly detection algorithm could be performed using simulation (as in [3]), the need for testing in a realistic environment has been stressed, and CPS security experiments are now being performed using robots [2] as well as various testbeds [4], [16]. In this study, a statistical non-parametric CUSUM algorithm is used for detecting stealthy attacks on a robot.…”