Robust, secure, efficient networked embedded control systems

Research Area: Available and Secure Network and Communication

Abstract

The project aims at designing robust, secure, efficient Networked Embedded Control Systems (NECS). Next generation networked embedded systems in various industries, including automotive, aerospace, power, transportation, health-care, and home automation, are undergoing a dramatic revolution. The ubiquitous use of information and communication technologies has resulted in intelligent, increasingly interconnected, complex, interdependent, and therefore more vulnerable, systems.

While cheap, easily deployable, maintenance-free, highly dense and distributed wireless sensor-actuator networks promise a wealth of new applications and a radical improvement to the existing ones, their robustness to faults and security breaches still needs to be proved in the field. In these systems issues of communication delay, data loss, time-synchronization and data integrity play a critical role.

The research will revolve around the following themes:

Control of NECS: This theme emphasizes the active use of information by closing the loop in networked control systems with varying and reconfigurable information topologies.

Cyber security for NECS: There has been inadequate attention paid to the trustworthiness of next generation embedded control systems. Specific interest is on defending against new classes of attacks, as well as incorporating the impact of security in the overall embedded control system design.

Performance Metrics for NECS: It is important to quantify the level of confidence in embedded systems design. Given the complexity of NECS, the need arises to develop meaningful performance metrics for NECS, both at the stochastic and deterministic level.