The objective of this NASA ULI project will establish a security framework and algorithmic foundations to safeguard high-density urban airspace against cyberattacks. We will focus on attacks on heterogeneous airspace operations, which includes both Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) and UAS Traffic Management (UTM).
The outcome of the project will be security-aware improvements on the current advanced air mobility (AAM) and UAS traffic management (UTM) system architecture, avionics software, ground control station (GCS) software, and aircraft operations.
The expected benefits include (1) raising industry awareness to identify the vulnerable links and components in AAM/UTM and quantify attack risks to individual aircraft and the airspace; (2) recommending necessary security updates for AAM/UTM system architecture, avionics software standards, and communication, navigation and surveillance (CNS) infrastructure design; and (3) informing further investments from the AAM/UTM industry on developing technologies and mechanisms to mitigate attack hazards and manage attack risks.
Research Thrusts
- Identifying system vulnerabilities and modeling the impact of cyberattacks
- Defense against attacks and security risk mitigations
- Designing infrastructure to improve system-level resilience and security
Team Members
We are a multi-institution team from George Washington University, Vanderbilt University, Purdue University, UT Austin, UC Irvine, Tennessee State University and Collins Aerospace.
- Peng Wei, George Washington University (GWU)
- Bryan Ward, Xenofon Koutsoukos, Gautam Biswas, Vanderbilt University
- Vijay Gupta, Mahsa Ghasemi, Purdue University
- Amir Shirkhodaie, Tennessee State University
- Alfred Chen, University of California, Irvine (UCI)
- Ufuk Topcu, University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin)
- Isaac Amundson, Saqib Hasan, Collins Aerospace
Publications
- To come
