Smart Cities: The Case for Assured Autonomy

Abstract

Imagine a city that conforms to your life in real-time. A drone docked outside your home picks up fresh pastries in the morning for you to bring to work as a transit pod appears at your front door to pick you up as you walk outside. This is the future of autonomous systems in smart cities. As population density increases in city centers, there has been a desperate need to improve the efficiency of infrastructure operations that we rely on. To address this, cities have moved towards digitizing their infrastructure using industrial internet of things (IIoT) devices. Not only are infrastructure like electric grids, water networks and transportation systems now connected to the internet, but they are increasingly operated autonomously. The combination of connectivity and autonomy has created a field day for attackers. The cyber-physical nature of these autonomous systems and their interaction with people mean that a software failure caused by a security issue could result in physical harm or even death. This talk will review the current network, systems and AI reliability research intending to curb the safety and security concerns associated with autonomous systems that will operate at scale, as is the case in smart cities. A research vision for assured autonomy and questions that need to be addressed will also be discussed.