Robotic Technology Kernel High Assurance

Cybersecurity of modern automotive systems is a growing concern. Modern vehicles continue to rapidly grow in functionality to support autonomous driving, electrification, and advanced user interfaces. Cyberattacks on commercial vehicles could result in significant safety, privacy, and availability issues. Military vehicles have additional concerns such as functioning in contested environments targeted by advanced cyber threats, modification over their life cycle with additional subsystems from multiple vendors, and simple maintainability to ensure readiness. The ArmyÆs Robotic Technology Kernel (RTK) is extending the state of the art in autonomous driving for military vehicles. As part of its evolution to support operational deployment, cybersecurity requirements must be addressed in a robust future-proof manner. A key element of cybersecurity is providing isolation between components enabling resilience to both malicious cyberattacks and system failures. One method to provide this isolation is through a security architecture that includes elements such as secure operating systems and high assurance kernels. The proposed program will add support in RTK for a high assurance kernel providing a key element to enable secure deployment of future Army autonomous vehicles. Secmation has extensive experience supporting Robot Operating System Version 2 (ROS2) in secure environments, including the development of the AutonomyLock(TM) commercial product. AutonomyLockĀenables building ROS2 control systems within a graphical programming environment which automatically provides isolation, cryptography, and security documentation to produce secure solutions.ĀUsing the experience gained in developing secure ROS2 based systems as a starting point, Secmation proposes to develop a high assurance kernel-based security architecture for RTK that supports a practical, low-risk transition of existing RTK components and meets Army security requirements.