On Cyber-Attacks Mitigation for Distributed Trajectory Generators

Abstract

In this paper, an immune average consensus behavior of distributed trajectory generators given in the form of a multi-agent system is presented. Starting with the well-known results of linear consensus protocols, we propose a decomposition of the invariant consensus value to enable a distributed cyber-attacks detection and mitigation mechanism among the connected agents over mainly undirected communication links. This decomposition suggests one preferred propagation of the invariant quantity along communication links of the multi-agent systems under study. Despite its simplicity, the effectiveness of this mechanism in detecting and mitigating various types of cyber-attacks is evident through a numerical simulation. Interestingly, the resulting defense mechanism will not be passive, rather it can initiate its counter-attack measures by pretending that the attack process was a success. Moreover, the trajectory generators can operate under stealth mode where the communication links get silenced or totally disconnected without affecting the intended behavior after having the consensus value locked.