A Security Architecture for Black Wall in Autonomous Robotic Systems

Problem statement

Investigate how Black Wall can isolate robotic workloads, restrict actuator access, authenticate inter-component communication, and maintain predictable behavior during software or network failures.

Why it matters

In a robot, a software fault or compromise can become a physical hazard. Separating perception, planning and actuation, and constraining what each component may command, limits how far a failure can propagate into motion.

Research questions

1. 01 Which components can be separated, and what interfaces must remain between perception, planning and actuation?
2. 02 How should access to motors and other actuators be mediated and constrained?
3. 03 What authentication is practical for inter-component communication on embedded hardware?
4. 04 How do isolation and real-time scheduling interact under normal and degraded operation?

Research objectives

• Separate perception, planning, and actuation components.
• Define access policies for motors and other actuators.
• Evaluate authenticated component communication.
• Investigate resource isolation and real-time scheduling.
• Develop simulated tests for unauthorized commands and component failures.

Technical challenges

• Real-time control paths leave little budget for mediation and authentication.
• Robotics middleware assumes permissive local communication that isolation can disrupt.
• Actuator constraints must be enforced without blocking legitimate recovery behaviour.
• Simulation has to reproduce timing and failure modes closely enough to be informative.

Expected outcome

A prototype security architecture for robotic workloads, evaluated in simulation before physical deployment.

Tags

roboticsactuator controlcomponent isolationreal-timeembedded securitysimulation

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