Mitigating the Effects of Jamming on Autonomous Vehicle Convoys with Behavior-Based Robotics
Cheung, Calvin
2023-04-26
Abstract
Autonomous ground vehicle convoys are heavily reliant on radio communications when performing leader-follower operations. The lead vehicle sets the path and utilizes radio communications to send information such as path points, vehicle pose, vehicle speed, and other sensor data. Follower vehicles utilize this information to track the leader’s path and mobilize to the proper positions. This reliance on radio communications makes autonomous ground vehicle convoys particularly vulnerable to network denial-of-service attacks, such as radio jamming. Jamming is a type of denial-of-service attack that attempts to disrupt or block wireless communications, which interferes with a radio’s ability to transmit or receive data. The contribution of this dissertation is to improve the performance of autonomous ground vehicle convoys when facing radio jamming attacks by utilizing a controls-oriented approach. To mitigate the effects of jamming attacks on autonomous convoys, we propose a behavior-based architecture named the Behavior Manager. The Behavior Manager utilizes layered costmaps and vector field histogram motion planning to implement motor schema behaviors. By utilizing the Behavior Manager, multiple behaviors can be created and combined to form a convoy controller capable of persisting with convoy operations while under a jamming attack. Based on a thorough review of relevant literature, this is the first time that techniques from behavioral robotics are being utilized to mitigate the effects of jamming attacks in any capacity. In addition, we propose a framework for comparative performance, named the Performance Metrics Framework, to gauge the performance of convoy systems. To develop the framework, we examined manned convoy requirements found in Army doctrine, along with common autonomous convoying research metrics. By using the framework, we can categorize performance requirements into different priority areas and find relevant key metrics to use for performance comparison. We conducted experiments to measure the performance of our Behavior Manager convoy controller in the face of radio jamming and utilized the Performance Metrics Framework in performing comparative analysis. In the experiments, simulated convoy runs were performed on multiple path plans under different types of jamming attacks. The experimental results showed that the Behavior Manager was able to improve the performance of autonomous convoys when faced with jamming attacks across all jammer types and path plans, ranging from 13.33% to 86.61% reductions in path error. These results show that a behavior-based robotics architecture approach can used to provide a controls-oriented layer of protection against radio jamming. When combined with common anti-jamming techniques, the Behavior Manager provides a robust, multifaceted defense against radio jamming.Deep Blue DOI
Subjects
Autonomous convoy Behavior-based robotics Jam mitigation Platooning Military doctrine Convoy performance metrics
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