CAREER:Formal Synthesis of Provably Correct Cyber-Physical Defense with Asymmetric Information

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For mission-critical Cyber-physical systems (CPSs), it is crucial to ensure these systems behave correctly while interacting with open, dynamic, and uncertain environments. Synthesizing CPSs with assurance is a daunting task: On the one hand, the interconnected networks, sensors, and (semi-) autonomous systems introduce unprecedented vulnerabilities to both cyber- and physical spaces; On the other hand, purposeful attacks may aim to compromise more complex system properties beyond traditional stability and safety. For example, in a robotized security patrol system, a successful cyber-attack on the sensor network can be combined with adversarial control commands to compromise the system and disrupt its mission. In this project, the goal is to develop intelligent sensing and control methods for CPSs that leverage advanced cyber defense techniques for constructing provably secured systems subject to high-level complex mission objectives.To achieve this goal, this project will develop formal modeling and solutions for a class of CPS Games, featured by multi-stage, strategic interactions between a controller/defender and a (coordinated cyber- and physical-) attacker. The synthesis of CPS control/defense strategies will explicitly account for asymmetric information and investigate how to leverage cyber defense and deception for guaranteed performance in mission-critical CPSs. The fundamental theory and algorithms will be validated via both a physical testbed including multiple mobile robots and a wireless sensor network and a simulation as a virtual proving ground. The technical contributions are: 1) to develop solutions of imperfect information games with temporal logic objectives and employ the solutions to design control and information acquisition strategies for CPSs under attacks; 2) to investigate the use of cyber defense techniques for gaining defender information advantages against CPS attackers in the synthesis of integrated cyber-physical defense; 3) to develop control strategies against coordinated cyber- and physical- attacks, and novel control methods that incorporate human’s preference for CPS resilience against prior unknown attacks. The project also includes an educational plan by developing an interdisciplinary curriculum for engineering students on cyber-physical security and attack mitigation techniques. The PI will promote K-12 outreach by participating in campus-wide activities and offering a two-week summer course for high-school students with hands-on robotic and wireless sensor networks experiments, aiming to raise students’ interest in science and engineering and public’s awareness of CPS security.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.