Consensus-based Distributed Intrusion Detection for Secure Multi-Robot Systems

This paper addresses a security problem in robotic multi–agent systems, where agents are supposed to cooperate according to a shared protocol. A distributed Intrusion Detection System (IDS) is proposed here, that detects possible non–cooperative agents. Previous work by the authors showed how single monitors embedded on–board the agents can detect non– cooperative behavior, using only locally available information. In this paper, we allow such monitors to share the collected information in order to overcome their sensing limitation. In this perspective, we show how an agreement on the type of behavior of a target–robot may be reached by the monitors, through execution of a suitable consensus algorithm. After formulating a consensus problem over non–scalar quantities, and with a generic update function, we provide conditions for the consensus convergence and an upper bound to its transient duration. Effectiveness of the proposed solution is finally shown through simulation of a case study