Presented at ATT 2022 (12th International Workshop on Agents in Traffic and Transportation) held at IJCAI-ECAI 2022 - Link to Paper
Abstract
Driven by recent successes in artificial intelligence, new autonomous navigation
systems are emerging in the urban space. The adoption of such systems raises questions
about certification criteria and their vulnerability to external threats. This work focuses on the
automated anti-collision systems designed for autonomous drones evolving in an urban context,
less controlled than the conventional airspace and more vulnerable to potential intruders.
In particular, we highlight the vulnerabilities of such systems to hijacking, taking as example the
scenario of an autonomous delivery drone diverted from its mission by a malicious agent.
We demonstrate the possibility of training Reinforcement Learning agents to deflect a drone
equipped with an automated anti-collision system. Our contribution is threefold. Firstly, we
illustrate the security vulnerabilities of these systems. Secondly, we demonstrate the effectiveness
of Reinforcement Learning for automatic detection of security flaws. Thirdly, we provide
the community with an original benchmark based on an industrial use case.