Synthesis of Supervisors Robust Against Sensor Deception Attacks

We consider feedback control systems where sensor readings may be compromised by a malicious attacker intending on causing damage to the system. We study this problem at the supervisory layer of the control system, using discrete event systems techniques. We assume that the attacker can edit the outputs from the sensors of the system before they reach the supervisory controller. In this context, we formulate the problem of synthesizing a supervisor that is robust against the class of edit attacks on the sensor readings and present a solution methodology for this problem. This methodology blends techniques from games on automata with imperfect information with results from supervisory control theory of partially observed discrete event systems. Necessary and sufficient conditions are provided for the investigated problem.

Automated summary

This study investigates feedback control systems in which sensor readings may be compromised by malicious attackers. A solution methodology for synthesizing a robust supervisor against edit attacks on sensor readings is formulated by blending techniques from automata games and supervisory control theory. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the problem are provided.