Daniel Fernando Pigatto

CaRINA Intelligent Robotic Car: Architectural design and applications

Abstract This paper presents the development of two outdoor intelligent vehicles platforms named CaRINA I and CaRINA II, their system architecture, simulation tools, and control modules. It also describes the development of the intelligent control system modules allowing the mobile robots and vehicles to navigate autonomously in controlled urban environments. Research work has been carried out on tele-operation, driver assistance systems, and autonomous navigation using the vehicles as platforms to experiments and validation. Our robotic platforms include mechanical adaptations and the development of an embedded software architecture. This paper addresses the design, sensing, decision making, and acting infrastructure and several experimental tests that have been carried out to evaluate both platforms and proposed algorithms. The main contributions of this work is the proposed architecture, that is modular and flexible, allowing it to be instantiated into different robotic platforms and applications. The communication and security aspects are also investigated.

Performance evaluation of security techniques in web services

This paper proposes an evaluation and comparison of guidelines and techniques that allow the creation of secure Web services to determine whether the application has the desired characteristics related to performance and security. In this sense it is crucial evaluate the cryptographic algorithms and the key length used. The results obtained allow to determine, based on specified objectives, the impact of security mechanisms used in application performance.

Case studies of performance evaluation of cryptographic algorithms for an embedded system and a general purpose computer

Embedded systems are associations between hardware and software designed to perform a specific function. These systems are usually part of a larger system and their wireless communications are a hallmark. Therefore, it is important to guarantee a secure communication by ensuring the confidentiality of information, which is obtained through cryptography. Security has not traditionally been considered a requirement in embedded systems design and the application of specific security techniques to these devices is still incipient. This paper presents a performance evaluation analysis of cryptographic algorithms in embedded systems (namely RC2, AES, Blowfish, DES, 3DES, ECC and RSA). Parameters considered in the analysis are average processor and memory usage, response time and power consumption. The results show that symmetric and asymmetric algorithms such as Blowfish and ECC have a good performance in embedded systems when properly chosen for each situation.

The HAMSTER Data Communication Architecture for Unmanned Aerial, Ground and Aquatic Systems

This paper presents HAMSTER, the HeAlthy, Mobility and Security based data communication archiTEctuRe. HAMSTER is designed for Unmanned Vehicles and addresses mainly three types of communications: machine-to-machine, machine-to-infrastructure and internal machine communications. It is divided into three main versions: Flying HAMSTER (for aerial systems), Running HAMSTER (for terrestrial systems) and Swimming HAMSTER (for aquatic systems). Every version of such architecture is also equipped with Sphere and Nimble. Sphere deals with Safety & Security aspects regarding communication, components “health” and modules authentication. Nimble is aimed at increasing the overall mobility in such scenarios, strongly actuating with inherent communications of each application field. This paper details every aspect of HAMSTER and presents, as a plus at the end, two case studies: the first one consists of an evaluation of five communications schemes for internal communications in airplanes; the second one is a cryptographic evaluation of two Elliptic Curve Cryptography algorithms.

Sphere: A novel platform for increasing safety & security on Unmanned Systems

The Healthy, Mobility and Security-based Data Communication Architecture, also known as HAMSTER, is provided with a special platform for safety & security: Sphere. It concentrates all the safety & security aspects of the main architecture and all derivative versions. The aim is to define patterns for assuring safety & security that allow every unmanned vehicle derived from HAMSTER to safely share information, even when different scenarios are involved, e. g. to permit the safe communication between an unmanned ground vehicle and an unmanned aerial vehicle. It is also a goal of Sphere to centralize the modules “health” check, which guarantees a safer operation for the vehicle and, consequently, the entire system. Modules and subsystems criticality measurements are proposed as part of the architecture definition for research &development of robust, safe, health and secure unmanned vehicles and systems.

LARISSA: Layered architecture model for interconnection of systems in UAS

Architectural models have been used to enable the development of more appropriate and structured systems, from the simplest to the most complex. The use of models in embedded systems is important especially when it comes to critical embedded systems. In such systems, as unmanned aerial vehicles, these models are designed to allow compliance standards, reduction in production time, reduce and make easy the development and maintenance process. Critical embedded systems have specific requirements, such as high reliability and real-time response, security and performance. The definition of an architectural model that allows these aspects is taken into account, and that provide compliance with the standards and enables accurate and rapid development. This is innovative and allows the scientific community and the industry to have benefits. In this sense, the LARISSA aims at developing an architectural model for systems interconnection in unmanned aircraft systems (UASs), allowing features reuse and certification of these aircrafts.

Comparison and Analysis of Cryptographic Algorithms Aiming Performance Improvement in Secure Web Services

In this paper is shown an evaluation and comparison of techniques that allow the validation of the Web services used, to determine characteristics related to performance and security. In this sense, it is crucial evaluate the cryptography and digital signature performance in SOAP messages, performing the change of cryptographic algorithms, as well as the keys length. Security at the message-level was provided using WSSecurity. The results obtained allow to determine the impact of security mechanisms used in this type of applications.

AVENS - A Novel Flying Ad Hoc Network Simulator with Automatic Code Generation for Unmanned Aircraft System

The wireless communication has played a significant impact on our daily lives introducing simplicity and making life more comfortable. As a result of faster technological advances in electronics and communications, the development of different types of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has become possible. Recently, many efforts have been made to develop more efficient interand intra-vehicle communication protocols introducing new challenges, e. g. multiple-UAV communication and Flying Ad Hoc Networks (FANETs). However, most of the experiments using real prototypes or systems are not feasible due to the costs and risks involved. Thus, simulating network protocol behavior in FANET scenarios is increasingly required to evaluate the applicability of developed network protocols. Thereby, we have been developing AVENS, a hybrid aerial network simulation framework, which merges LARISSA Architectural Model, X-Plane Flight Simulator and OMNeT++ Discrete Event Simulator. In a proof-of-concept study, we highlighted its advantages. Using AVENS, we can advance in the state-of-the-art concerning performance evaluation of intelligent aerial vehicles and provide means to evaluate the development of protocols, codes and systems more accurately.

Using Botnets to provide security for safety critical embedded systems - a case study focused on UAVs

The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV s) has been growing not only in military applications, but also in civilian. UAVs have enormous potential for use, which mostly still are unexplored. For the use of UAV s in the airspace, not only Brazilian new studies on methods of analysis and technologies should be incorporated into navigation systems, control among others, promoting security mechanisms for these aircraft. Implement security mechanisms using a platform with operating systems and botnet to simulate such attack Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) in UAVs is an important task when it is aimed at containment and mitigation of attacks on this type of platform.

AN APPROACH TO MITIGATE DENIAL OF SERVICE ATTACKS IN IEEE 802.11 NETWORKS

Wireless networks are widely deployed and have many uses, for example in critical embedded systems. The applications of this kind of network meets the common needs of most embedded systems and addressing the particularities of each scenario, su ch as limitations of computing resources and energy supply. Problems such as denial of service attacks are common place and cause great inconvenience. Thus, this study presents simulations of denial of service attacks on 802.11 wireless networks using t he network simulator OMNeT++. Furthermore, we present an approach to mitigate such attack, obtaining significant results for improving wireless networks .