Cyber Security Risks in Robotics

Abstract

With technology flourishing at a rapid rate, humans have been able to achieve considerable heights of success. Accomplishment of tasks nowadays is either a click away or a command away in most of the technological arenas. One such realm of technology is that of Robotics which has been there for almost a century and continues advancing day by day. The evolution of robotics has ranged from the basic remote controlled systems to humanoid robots. With applications as well as accuracy increasing for every new system implemented, security risks too have been making their way into the new invention. Since different robots have been created for different purposes in different fields like the defense, household, medical or the space, protecting systems against their exploitation is of utmost importance as these fields incorporate sensitive as well as intricate tasks. This chapter focuses on the security aspects of Robotics. The necessity of Cyber security in Robotics has been explored by taking different kinds of robots used in different fields. The current state of Robotics is vulnerable to many risks and several case studies have been highlighted to support the need of securing Robotics by identifying several risks to which it is vulnerable. Apart from that mitigation strategies have been discussed to secure the domain of Robotics. An attack comparison has been made for three robots in analyzing them against the vulnerabilities faced by them.