Sampling based Computation of Viability Domain to Prevent Safety Violations by Attackers

Abstract: This paper studies the security of cyber-physical systems under attacks. Our goal is to design system parameters, such as a set of initial conditions and input bounds so that it is secure by design. To this end, we propose new sufficient conditions to guarantee the safety of a system under adversarial actuator attacks. Using these conditions, we propose a computationally efficient sampling-based method to verify whether a set is a viability domain for a general class of nonlinear systems. In particular, we devise a method of checking a modified barrier function condition on a finite set of points to assess whether a set can be rendered forward invariant. Then, we propose an iterative algorithm to compute the set of initial conditions and input constraint set to limit what an adversary can do if it compromises the vulnerable inputs. Finally, we utilize a Quadratic Program approach for online control synthesis.