Towards a Robotic Intrusion Prevention System: Combining Security and Safety in Cognitive Social Robots

TL;DR

This paper introduces a robotic intrusion prevention system (RIPS) that enhances safety and security in cognitive social robots by detecting and mitigating cyber threats while maintaining human privacy and safety.

Contribution

It presents a novel approach combining cybersecurity and safety measures through System Modes to protect cognitive social robots from cyber-physical threats.

Findings

RIPS effectively detects cyber threats at communication levels.

System Modes enable safe mitigation during system compromise.

Validation on a real social robot shows improved safety and privacy.

Abstract

Social Robots need to be safe and reliable to share their space with humans. This paper reports on the first results of a research project that aims to create more safe and reliable, intelligent autonomous robots by investigating the implications and interactions between cybersecurity and safety. We propose creating a robotic intrusion prevention system (RIPS) that follows a novel approach to detect and mitigate intrusions in cognitive social robot systems and other cyber-physical systems. The RIPS detects threats at the robotic communication level and enables mitigation of the cyber-physical threats by using System Modes to define what part of the robotic system reduces or limits its functionality while the system is compromised. We demonstrate the validity of our approach by applying it to a cognitive architecture running in a real social robot that preserves the privacy and safety of humans while facing several cyber attack situations.