Autonomous Vehicle Sensor Verification Against Malicious Signals
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Solution Overview
Problem
Autonomous vehicles face safety risks due to inaccurate sensor information caused by malicious sensor feeds, which can lead to unsafe maneuvers such as sudden stopping or incorrect navigation, as attackers can broadcast fake signals that confuse sensors, manipulating the decision-making process.
Innovation Solution
An autonomous vehicle sensor security system that generates and exchanges map instances of environmental information securely between vehicles and roadside equipment units, using Transport Layer Security (TLS) for authentication, and activates a secure sensor to verify discrepancies, ensuring accurate navigation by ignoring or correcting malicious signals.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If autonomous vehicles use standard sensors to capture environmental information, then the vehicle can navigate autonomously, but the sensor information may be manipulated by malicious signals causing unsafe maneuvers
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary verification system that acts as a mediator between the sensor feeds and the autonomous vehicle's decision-making process. This system cross-checks sensor information from multiple sources including satellite imagery, aerial photography, and ground-based sensors to verify the authenticity of environmental data before the vehicle acts on it, thereby blocking malicious manipulations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where the system continuously monitors sensor inputs, compares them against verified data from multiple independent sources, and adjusts its trust level for each sensor feed. When discrepancies are detected, the system requests additional verification or discards suspicious data, creating a closed-loop security system that adapts to potential threats.
2Measurement precision
If the vehicle activates secure sensors to verify discrepancies, then navigation accuracy improves, but energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs periodic verification rather than continuous activation of secure sensors. The system activates secure sensors at regular intervals or only when triggered by specific conditions such as detected discrepancies or high-risk environments, rather than maintaining constant operation. This periodic approach maintains measurement precision when needed while significantly reducing overall energy consumption compared to continuous verification.
Data Source
AI summary
Example methods and systems are disclosed to provide autonomous vehicle sensor security. An example method may include generating, by a first autonomous vehicle, a first map instance of a physical environment using first environmental information generated by a first sensor of a first autonomous vehicle. A second map instance from at least one of a second autonomous vehicle located in the physical environment is received. The first map instance may be correlated with the second map instance. In response to a discrepancy between the first map instance and the second map instance, a secure sensor may be activated to generate a third map instance. In response to the third map instance verifying that the discrepancy accurately describes the physical environment, the first environmental information including the discrepancy is used to navigate the first autonomous vehicle.