skip to main content


Title: Deep-Learning-Based Intrusion Detection for Autonomous Vehicle-Following Systems
Autonomous vehicle-following systems, including Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) and Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC), improve safety, efficiency, and string stability for a vehicle (the ego vehicle) following its leading vehicle. The ego vehicle senses or receives information, such as the position, velocity, acceleration, or even intention, of the leading vehicle and controls its own behavior. However, it has been shown that sensors and wireless channels are vulnerable to security attacks, and attackers can modify data sensed from sensors or received from other vehicles. To address this problem, in this paper, we design three types of stealthy attacks on ACC or CACC inputs, where the stealthy attacks can deceive a rule-based detection approach and impede system properties (collision-freeness and vehicle-following distance). We then develop two deep-learning models, a predictor-based model and an encoder-decoder-based model to detect the attacks, where the two models do not need attacker models for training. The experimental results demonstrate the respective strengths of different models and lead to a methodology for the design of learning-based intrusion detection approaches.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1908549
NSF-PAR ID:
10296350
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
4th IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems - ITSC2021
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. In this paper, we investigated the performance of cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC) algorithms in mixed traffic environments featuring connected automated vehicles (CAVs) and unconnected vehicles. For CAVs, we tested the recently proposed linear feedback control approach (Linear- CACCu) and adaptive model predictive control approach (A- MPC-CACCu) which have been tailored to extend CACC to mixed traffic environments. In contrast to most literature where CACC design and evaluation are performed on freeways, we focused on urban arterial roads using the CACC Field Operation Test Dataset from the Netherlands. We compared the performances of Linear-CACCu and A-MPC-CACCu to regular adaptive cruise control (ACC), where automated vehicles do not rely on connectivity, as well as human drivers. Performance comparison was done in terms of ego vehicle’s spacing error, acceleration, and energy consumption which relate to safety, driving comfort, and energy efficiency, respectively. Simulation results showed that CACCu algorithms significantly outper- formed the ACC and human drivers in these metrics. Moreover, we found that the fluctuations of the lead vehicle’s behavior due to changes in traffic signal phase have a significant impact on which CACCu is optimal (i.e., A-MPC-CACCu or Linear- CACCu). Thus, the CACC mode could be switched based on the expectation of traffic signal phase changes to assure better performance. 
    more » « less
  2. null (Ed.)
    This study focuses on how to improve the merge control prior to lane reduction points due to either accidents or constructions. A Cooperative Car-following and Merging (CCM) control strategy is proposed considering the coexistence of Automated Vehicles (AVs) and Human-4 Driven Vehicles (HDVs). CCM introduces a modified/generalized Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC) for vehicle longitudinal control prior to lane reduction points. It also takes courtesy into account to ensure that AVs behave responsibly and ethically. CCM is evaluated using microscopic traffic simulation and compared with no control and CACC merge strategies. The results show that CCM consistently generates the lowest delays and highest throughputs approaching the theoretical capacity. Its safety benefits are also found to be significant based on vehicle trajectories and density maps. AVs in this study do not need to be fully automated and can be at Level-1 automation. CCM only requires automated longitudinal control such as Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) and information sharing among vehicles, and ACC is already commercially available on many new vehicles. Also, it does not need 100% ACC penetration, presenting itself as a promising and practical solution for improving traffic operations in lane reduction transition areas such as highway work zones. 
    more » « less
  3. Emergent vehicles will support a variety of connected applications, where a vehicle communicates with other vehicles or with the infrastructure to make a variety of decisions. Cooperative connected applications provide a critical foundational pillar for autonomous driving, and hold the promise of improving road safety, efficiency and environmental sustainability. However, they also induce a large and easily exploitable attack surface: an adversary can manipulate vehicular communications to subvert functionality of participating individual vehicles, cause catastrophic accidents, or bring down the transportation infrastructure. In this paper we outline a potential direction to address this critical problem through a resiliency framework, REDEM, based on machine learning. REDEM has several interesting features, including (1) smooth integration with the architecture of the underlying application, (2) ability to handle diverse communication attacks within the same underlying foundation, and (3) real-time detection and mitigation capability. We present the vision of REDEM, identify some key challenges to be addressed in its realization, and discuss the kind of evaluation/analysis necessary for its viability. We also present initial results from one instantiation of REDEM introducing resiliency in Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC). 
    more » « less
  4. Zonta, Daniele ; Su, Zhongqing ; Glisic, Branko (Ed.)
    With the rapid development of smart cities, interest in vehicle automation continues growing. Autonomous vehicles are becoming more and more popular among people and are considered to be the future of ground transportation. Autonomous vehicles, either with adaptive cruise control (ACC) or cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC), provide many possibilities for smart transportation in a smart city. However, traditional vehicles and autonomous vehicles will have to share the same road systems until autonomous vehicles fully penetrate the market over the next few decades, which leads to conflicts because of the inconsistency of human drivers. In this paper, the performance of autonomous vehicles with ACC/CACC and traditional vehicles in mixed driver environments, at a signalized intersection, were evaluated using the micro-simulator VISSIM. In the simulation, the vehicles controlled by the ACC/CACC and Wiedemann 99 (W99) model represent the behavior of autonomous vehicles and human driver vehicles, respectively. For these two different driver environments, four different transport modes were comprehensively investigated: full light duty cars, full trucks, full motorcycles, and mixed conditions. In addition, ten different seed numbers were applied to each model to avoid coincidence. To evaluate the driving behavior of the human drivers and autonomous vehicles, this paper will compare the total number of stops, average velocity, and vehicle delay of each model at the signalized traffic intersection based on a real road intersection in Minnesota. 
    more » « less
  5. This paper focuses on the detection of cyber-attack on a communication channel and simultaneous radar health monitoring for a connected vehicle. A semi-autonomous adaptive cruise control (SA-ACC) vehicle is considered which has wireless communication with its immediately preceding vehicle to operate at small time-gap distances without creating string instability. However, the reliability of the wireless connectivity is critical for ensuring safe vehicle operation. The presence of two unknown inputs related to both sensor failure and cyber-attack seemingly poses a difficult estimation challenge. The dynamic system is first represented in descriptor system form. An observer with estimation error dynamics decoupled from the cyber-attack signal is developed. The performance of the observer is extensively evaluated in simulations. The estimation system is able to detect either a fault in the velocity measurement radar channel or a cyber-attack. Also, the proposed observer-based controller achieves resilient SA-ACC system under the cyber-attacks. The fundamental estimation algorithm developed herein can be extended in the future to enable cyber-attack detection in more complex connected vehicle architectures. 
    more » « less