NSF/ENG/ECCS-BSF: Collaborative Research: Foundations of secure multi-agent networked systems

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The goal of this research project is to develop a new framework for the design of secure multi-agent systems along with the tools necessary for their analysis. The rapid pace of innovation in the areas of control theory, computation, and communication is leading the way for a new class of networked systems characterized by their complex interconnections, diversity of components, and interactions with the physical world. The potential benefits of these networked systems from environmental, economic, and social perspectives are however limited by the ability to secure them. There are currently many efforts under way to address the underlying security issues by ways of developing secure communication protocols and procedures. The PIs take a different point of view here: instead of developing methods to secure existing systems, they develop methods to design systems that are inherently secure and embedded with breach detection mechanisms. The PIs thus expand the secure-by-design philosophy popular in software engineering to the design of networked dynamical systems. In terms of applications, the proposed research program will significantly push forward the frontiers of secure design of cyber-physical systems, furthering their use across many domains including critical infrastructures such as transportation networks, power generation and distribution networks, water and gas distribution networks. The PIs will also contribute to educational outreach by developing new interactive modules, focusing on security issues of CPS for high school students, and mentoring graduate and undergraduate students.The proposed program is built upon three overarching principles: (i) control the information given to the agents, (ii) embed the agents with hidden security measures, and (iii) make the dynamics robust and resilient. More specifically, for the first principle, the PIs propose to establish a theoretical framework with novel design methodologies that can localize and encode both information and objectives for the agents. For the second principle, the PIs propose to embed the networked system with security measures that allow to detect easily tampering with large signals and its effect on the agents. These security measures can be certain functions that are designed to maintain invariant values over time and are locally computable by the agents. For the third principle, the PIs propose to leverage robust control theory for dealing with small attack injections, and moreover, introduce a novel controllability notion with provable guarantees on state attack recovery. In terms of intellectual merit, the proposed program will unify and exploit research in mathematics, namely integrating the study of symmetries in dynamical systems, completely integrable systems, and Hamiltonian dynamics, with engineering tools to develop methods to detect and foil attacks on a system. As such, it will establish new and deepen existing connections between mathematics, especially geometry and dynamical systems, and the study of cyber-physical systems.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.