Search

Most research in robotic swarms assumes a benign operational environment for the swarm. This paper follows on from previous work on attacks on a robotic swarms and presents an analysis of how Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) may be applied to protect robotic swarms. This paper shows that due to the characteristics of a swarm, anomaly-based intrusion detection techniques cannot be applied. Signature based techniques however can be used. The idea of an IDS Swarm is introduced and it is demonstrated that a signature based IDS can used to protect a swarm in a hostile environment.

Much research has been undertaken in the area of swarm robotics and applications the vast majority of which assumes a benign operational environment. We assume a hostile environment and review the threats to robotic swarms. We then define an adversary’s capabilities and classify generic attack types and attack vectors that may be undertaken by this adversary. We conclude that while the threats to a swarm are no different to those for traditional systems, there are differences with the attack types and attack vectors. This is primarily due to the ability to manipulate the emergent behaviour of the swarm by attacking individual swarm elements. We identify characteristics of the swarm that allow such attacks to take place.