VirtualDrone: Virtual sensing, actuation, and communication for attack-resilient unmanned aerial systems

Man Ki Yoon, Bo Liu, Naira Hovakimyan, Lui Sha

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

As modern unmanned aerial systems (UAS) continue to expand the frontiers of automation, new challenges to security and thus its safety are emerging. It is now difficult to completely secure modern UAS platforms due to their openness and increasing complexity. We present the VirtualDrone Framework, a software architecture that enables an attack-resilient control of modern UAS. It allows the system to operate with potentially untrustworthy software environment by virtualizing the sensors, actuators, and communication channels. The framework provides mechanisms to monitor physical and logical system behaviors and to detect security and safety violations. Upon detection of such an event, the framework switches to a trusted control mode in order to override malicious system state and to prevent potential safety violations. We built a prototype quadcoper running an embedded multicore processor that features a hardware-assisted virtualization technology. We present extensive experimental study and implementation details, and demonstrate how the framework can ensure the robustness of the UAS in the presence of security breaches.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProceedings - 2017 ACM/IEEE 8th International Conference on Cyber-Physical Systems, ICCPS 2017 (part of CPS Week)
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
Pages143-154
Number of pages12
ISBN (Electronic)9781450349659
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 18 2017
Event8th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Cyber-Physical Systems, ICCPS 2017 - Pittsburgh, United States
Duration: Apr 18 2017Apr 20 2017

Publication series

NameProceedings - 2017 ACM/IEEE 8th International Conference on Cyber-Physical Systems, ICCPS 2017 (part of CPS Week)

Other

Other8th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Cyber-Physical Systems, ICCPS 2017
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityPittsburgh
Period4/18/174/20/17

Keywords

  • Security
  • Unmanned aerial systems
  • Virtualization

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Hardware and Architecture
  • Computer Networks and Communications

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