CAREER: Cyber Resilient Navigation for Autonomous Systems under Threat Uncertainties and Contested Environments

The interest in autonomous systems for various critical missions, including transportation, search and rescue, surveillance, reconnaissance, mapping, and firefighting, is growing rapidly due to their significant safety, mobility, and environmental benefits. The use of autonomous ground vehicles promises to prevent more than 9 million accidents and 2 million injuries annually, conserve 7 billion liters of fuel and save more than 36,000 lives while reducing healthcare costs associated with accidents by $190 billion in the U.S.

However, successful mission execution and navigation of autonomous systems rely on accurate and reliable positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) services. Current cyber-resilient PNT solutions, which rely on global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), employ various techniques, such as inertial navigation systems (INS), vision-based sensing, the utilization of lower earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations or terrestrial pseudo satellites.

However, they are susceptible to unintentional interference, multipath issues, atmospheric effects, segment errors, intentional interference or jamming, and spoofing. This CAREER project generates in-depth insights into the fusion and integration of built-in sensors (GNSS along with inertial and perception sensors) of autonomous systems for cyber-resilient navigation under threat uncertainties and contested environments.

This project will investigate four complex problems related to integrated navigation systems: (i) threat modeling and cyber risk assessment; (ii) self-learning-based cyber attack modeling; (iii) signal, sensor fusion and navigation solution levels cyber attack detection; and (iv) secure autonomous navigation in contested environment; to advance fundamental knowledge on autonomous navigation challenges aggravated by growing cyber risks. This research pushes the boundaries of the science of cyber-resilient navigation under evolving cyber threat patterns.

In addition, education plan of this CAREER project addresses the increasing demand for a future cybersecurity workforce by exposing engineering students to cyber security knowledge and skills, and by inspiring engineering and K-12 students through game-based learning (GBL) platforms to think beyond the traditional cybersecurity solutions in addressing grand engineering challenges holistically.

This CAREER project aims to advance the scientific discovery of fundamental dynamics in cyber threat uncertainties for autonomous navigation under evolving attack surfaces in formulating a robust, efficient, flexible, and reliable positioning and navigation system. The goal of the research plan is to pursue the scientific exploration of cyber threat uncertainties of advanced GNSS-based positioning and navigation systems, and secure navigation under threat and contested environments.

The central hypothesis of this CAREER project is systematic considerations of the dynamic threat uncertainties in positioning and navigation solutions that aim to provide resilient navigation services under threats and contested environments. The research objectives of this CAREER project are to: (i) understand and assess cyber threat uncertainties of integrated positioning and navigation systems utilizing threat modeling approach, (ii) model self-learning based cyber-attacks to support the development of security-by-design navigation solutions, (iii) formulate a suite of cyber-attack detection algorithms under uncertainties, and (iv) develop a secure navigation solution through deep sensor fusion for a contested environment.

The goal of the education plan is to implement an engineering education program for next-generation engineers from a holistic multidisciplinary perspective. The education objectives include (i) equip future engineers by engaging them in cross-disciplinary research and educational initiatives; (ii) create and implement a GBL platform for students in grades K-12 to enhance their understanding and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields and related careers; (iii) involve students from under-represented groups in various research and educational endeavors; and (iv) conduct outreach programs to share the results of research with a broader audience.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.