Remote Robot Monitoring Using External Sensors for Attack Detection
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing remote monitoring systems fail to detect anomalies in a robot's state when an attacker alters peripheral information, making it difficult to identify unauthorized control or malicious operations.
Innovation Solution
A remote monitoring system that utilizes external sensing devices to obtain state information from a monitored target, estimates the target's state based on this information, and compares it with estimated states to detect anomalies, thereby identifying alterations made by attackers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If centralized remote monitoring is implemented to manage robots efficiently, then productivity and operational control are improved, but the system becomes vulnerable to malicious attacks and state alterations that cannot be detected
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces peripheral information (such as images from onboard cameras, audio from microphones, or data from external sensors) as an intermediary to verify the robot's reported state. This intermediary information serves as independent evidence that can detect alterations made by attackers, resolving the vulnerability where direct robot-to-monitor communication could be maliciously manipulated without detection.
2Device complexity
If the robot uses onboard sensors to report its state, then the monitoring system can operate with simple architecture, but an attacker who intrudes into the robot can alter both the state and peripheral information to conceal the anomaly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent adds another dimension of verification by introducing external sensing devices positioned at different spatial locations to observe the robot. These external sensors provide independent state information from a different perspective, making it difficult for an attacker to alter all observation points simultaneously. This multi-dimensional approach detects anomalies even when the robot's onboard sensors are compromised.
3Measurement precision
If peripheral information from onboard devices is used for state verification, then anomaly detection is enabled, but the detection fails when the attacker alters both the robot state and the peripheral information simultaneously
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the sensing function into multiple independent components: onboard sensors on the robot and external sensing devices positioned separately. This segmentation ensures that an attacker cannot compromise all sensing points simultaneously. The external sensors act as independent verification points that segment the attack surface and maintain detection capability even when onboard sensors are compromised.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
A remote monitoring system (101) is a remote monitoring system that detects an anomaly in a state of a monitored target (102) that operates autonomously, and the remote monitoring system (101) includes: a state obtainer (201) that obtains state information indicating a state of the monitored target (102) from the monitored target (102); an information obtainer (202a) that obtains first sensing information indicating a result of sensing of the monitored target (102) from an external information source (103a) that is provided outside the monitored target (102) and performs sensing of the monitored target (102); a state estimator (203a) that estimates a first state of the monitored target (102) based on the first sensing information; a state comparer (207) that compares the state information with estimated state information that is based on the first state; and an alert issuer (206) that notifies a monitor of the remote monitoring system (101) of an occurrence of an anomaly, based on a comparison result of the state comparer (207).