This research assesses the threat of cyber-physical attacks to manufacturing systems that change the design of a physical part, elude quality control measures, and result in part failure. This goal is achieved through the development of: a cyber-physical attack taxonomy, framework to assess levels of cyber-physical vulnerability, models to detect and diagnose the presence of attacks in real-time, and side-channel detection techniques specific to manufacturing.

Due to increasing use by civil and federal authorities and vast commercial and amateur applications, Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) will be introduced into the National Air Space (NAS); the question is only how we can do this safely. NASA and the FAA are designing a new automated air traffic control system (NextGen) for all aircraft, manned or unmanned. New algorithms and tools need to be developed to enable computation of the complex questions inherent in designing such a system while proving adherence to rigorous safety standards.

This project aims at accelerating the deployment of security measures for cyber-physical systems (CPSs) by proposing a framework that combines anomaly identification approaches, which emphasizes on the development of decentralized cyber-attack monitoring and diagnostic-like components, with robust control countermeasure to improve reliability and maintain system functionality. One of the main challenges for cyber physical systems is the security of transmitted data over the communication network.

This project will design and implement a domain-specific language and compiler for microfluidic laboratory-on-a-chip (LoC) devices based on electrowetting-on-dielectric (EWoD) technology. The Lead PI’s team has designed and implemented BioScript, a domain-specific programming language for programmable microfluidics. The BioScript syntax is programmer friendly, with the intention of being accessible to biologists and other researchers and practitioners in the life sciences.

This project is a component of a larger effort is to develop the foundations of modeling, synthesis and development of verified medical device software and systems from verified closed-loop models of the device and organ(s). This research spans both implantable medical devices such as cardiac pacemakers and physiological control systems such as drug infusion pumps which have multiple networked medical systems. Here we focus on an education and outreach activity associated with the project.

The goal of this project is to create an integrative framework for the design of coupled biological and robotic systems that accommodates system uncertainties and competing objectives in a rigorous, holistic, and e­ffective manner. The design principles are developed using a concrete, end-to-end application of tracking and modeling fish movement with a network of gliding robotic fish. The proposed robotic platform is an energy-efficient underwater gliding robotic fish that travels by changing its buoyancy and mass distribution (gliding) or by flapping tail fin (swimming).

Abstract: This research is investigating a cyber-physical framework for scalable, long-term monitoring and condition- based maintenance of civil infrastructures. Civil infrastructure constitutes a network of interdependent sys- tems and utilities (e.g., highways, bridges, rail systems, buildings) that are necessary for supporting social and economic activities.