Ueda gives a plenary talk at SICE FES Yokohama Japan

Dr. Ueda will give a plenary talk at the SICE FES 2026 in September 2026 at Yokohama.
Title: Symmetry as Vulnerability: Undetectable Cyberattacks on Remotely Controlled Robotic Systems and Their Defense Mechanisms
Abstract: As robots take on critical roles in logistics, disaster response, and infrastructure, their dependence on remote communication channels exposes them to a dangerous and largely overlooked class of cyberattacks. This talk presents a framework revealing that the kinematic and dynamic symmetries engineers have long exploited to simplify robot design and control create provably undetectable vulnerabilities. This talk shows that an attacker can apply coordinated affine transformations to both sensor measurements and control commands, inducing arbitrary deviations in the robot’s physical behavior while rendering all monitoring systems blind to the intrusion, requiring neither cryptographic compromise nor deep system knowledge. This talk further demonstrates that the same structural framework that characterizes the attack also reveals its detection signature: by designing state monitoring functions that deliberately break the attacker’s symmetry, optimal detection becomes achievable. Findings call for a fundamental shift toward security-aware control architecture design in cyber-physical robotic systems. This work represents a core research theme within the NEDO-funded Future Mobility Co-Creation Program, a large-scale industry-academia collaboration between Kobe University and Kawasaki Heavy Industries, with international partnership from Georgia Tech.