Collaborative Robots and their Security

Collaboration among robots and further with humans, will become crucial

Cobots and their security

Fending off Cyberattacks on Collaborative Robots  (CoBots)

By David Geer, Commissioned by CACM Staff, February 28, 2023

Collaborative robots (known as cobots) are used in a wide variety of ways and in very diverse application areas.

Collaborative robots, or cobots, count on Internet of Things (IoT) devices, telemetry data, software programming, and remote control for operation, productivity, and safety. These systems and devices present unique opportunities for attack.

Cyberattacks use IoT and Industrial IoT (IIoT) device vulnerabilities to gain unauthorized access to cobots. "IoT and IIoT devices connect to cobots via TCP/IP Ethernet to communicate inputs and instructions and to gain data," says Jim McKenney, practice director, Industrials & Operational Technologies at NCC Group, a cyberthreat management company.

According to McKenney, IoT devices collect a range of data from cobots, including performance metrics such as speed, accuracy, and energy consumption. The devices and data are vulnerable if someone has improperly configured those or if the security is weak, he says.

Vulnerable devices enable hacker reconnaissance of cobot systems. "Cybercriminals can collect information about the cobot's configuration, operating system, or communication protocols to develop customized malware," says Yair Attar, co-founder and CTO of OTORIO, an Operational Technology (OT) environment monitoring provider.

Malware inserts backdoors in systems, providing criminal hackers with remote access. Cybercriminals use command and control servers and bots to orchestrate automated attacks, leveraging and increasing access across networks and devices. Cobots are connected devices, a form of IIoT. The basic principles of attack on them do not differ from any other network-based attack. 

In fact, cobots are not necessarily the primary targets in these attacks. "Malware can spread laterally to devices on the network, causing wide, detrimental effects," says Francis Dinha, co-founder and CEO of OpenVPN, Inc.,  a private networking and cybersecurity company with clients in IoT.

Criminal hackers can live off the land, using remote control tools IT has already installed with the cobots, such as Secure Shell (SSH).

Attackers can use cobots' SSH connections for remote access to change uncompiled scripted code or gcode files to reconfigure the cobot to perform all the wrong motions, explains Michael Nizich, director of the Entrepreneurship & Technology Innovation Center and Cyber Defense Education at New York Institute of Technology.

While some cobot installations don't have SSH access, others have advanced SSH connections, according to Nizich, depending on the control board, operating system, and other installation factors.

"Advanced SSH connection support provides an outside user full access to the robot's operating system and controls and the software and scripts on the system that control the cobot's behaviors," says Nizich.

Unfortunately, it is often trivial for criminal hackers to learn these connection options and find cobots to attack. "Many times, vendors publicly advertise the features of software and hardware systems to make them more attractive from a sales perspective. Users discuss the intricate details of the system's functionality on blogs and vlogs as they attempt to troubleshoot issues with the help of other system users," explains Nizich.... '  .... 

It will be About the Cobot

Not a new term: Cobot: Collaborative Robot. but fairly rarely used recently.  Does not have to mean a physical robot, but can also include collaborative AI systems tools.  Its how the architecture of collaboration is set up, how data and goals are shared.  How process is followed.  General AI is still far away, but many real domains will be influenced quickly.

Why human-AI collaboration will dominate the future of work  in Techrepublic
At the 2018 MIT Sloan CIO Summit, a panel of AI experts discussed how machine learning will impact the workforce.

We are in the midst of an "AI awakening," as artificial intelligence technologies can now match or surpass humans in fundamental skills like image recognition, Erik Brynjolfsson, director of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy, said in a panel discussion session at the 2018 MIT Sloan CIO Symposium.

Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)—the point when machines will be able to perform all intellectual tasks that humans can—is still a long way off, Brynjolfsson said. But machine learning has reached superhuman capabilities in certain areas, and can offer enterprises a number of benefits.

In two papers recently published in Science and the American Economics Association, Brynjolfsson and colleagues developed a rubric of 23 questions to identify tasks that AI is now adept at, and applied those to the O*NET database of 964 occupations in the US.

Most jobs involve 20 to 30 distinct tasks, the research found. In most cases, machine learning could perform some tasks better than humans in a given occupation. However, it could never perform all tasks needed for the job better than its human counterpart. ... 

"Most jobs will be partly affected by machine learning, but there will also be things humans need to do," Brynjolfsson said in the session. Instead, the future will likely involve partnerships between humans and machines (known as collaborative robots, or co-bots) to more efficiently get work done. "Rarely will we completely wipe out entire job categories," he added.

Only 5% of workers will be displaced by AI, said panel participant Elisabeth Reynolds, executive director of MIT's Work of the Future Task Force, citing McKinsey research.

"The introduction of the co-bot is allowing us to replace routine work and allow workers to do something else," Reynolds said. "You do have to deal with displacement, but it is a small percentage of the growth we see." This echoes Gartner research, which predicted that AI will eliminate 1.8 million jobs by 2020, but will create 2.3 million in that same timeframe.  .... "

Airbags for Robots (To protect the Humans they Work With)

From Idea Connection.  Includes a video.  Via Ideaconnection. 

Airbags for Robots Protect Co-Workers 

Inflatable airbags for robots could help to protect their fragile, human co-workers.

As robots begin to work more closely with humans, there is also an increased risk of accidental injury. To help reduce that concern, researchers from Germany’s Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics developed a Robotic Airbag that would be inflated automatically as the “cobot” (collaborative robot) moves about at high velocities. This cushion would eliminate the need for extra safety sensors, while also allowing the co-bot to work at maximum efficiency. .... " 

How is Amazon Changing Whole Foods?

Announcements not very remarkable, would like to see more technology in store,  that supports the idea of fresh,  integration of ingredients, cooking and innovation. How about robotic virtual and physical assembly of fresh recipes.  Integrate AI creativity?  Many possibilities.   How can you get tech to help with creative choices?  How about a deeper linking of their Alexa capabilities?

Amazon Just Announced How It's Changing Whole Foods.
A new era begins with this sentence: "Starting Monday, Whole Foods Market will offer lower prices."   By Bill Murphy Jr. in Inc.

Here are the changes that are coming to a Whole Foods near you, in greater detail. In short, they're cutting prices across the board -- and as many have predicted, will ultimately be adding more benefits for Amazon Prime members. .... "

First, Amazon said it would cut prices immediately on many products, including: "bananas, organic avocados, organic large brown eggs, organic responsibly farmed salmon and tilapia, organic baby kale and baby lettuce, animal-welfare-rated 85 percent lean ground beef, creamy and crunchy almond butter, organic Gala and Fuji apples, organic rotisserie chicken, 365 Everyday Value organic butter, and much more."

Second, "after certain technical integration work is complete, Amazon Prime will become Whole Foods Market's customer rewards program, providing Prime members with special savings and other in-store benefits."

Next, Whole Foods Market's private label products "will be available through Amazon.com, AmazonFresh, Prime Pantry, and Prime Now." ....  "

More on Tacobots, the future of ordering Tacos.

Collaborative Robotics: CoBots

The term is not much used, but makes the point.  All computing systems are collaborative in some way.  We have accepted the assistance of computers for a long time.  But actual android helpers are still not common, and our reactions may be very different.

The ‘cobots’ are coming. Is your IT team ready?

These collaborative robots work alongside human employees, sending productivity sky-high. But IT teams must be prepared to take on complex programming, deal with connectivity issues and get used to sharing work space with 6-foot-tall machines. .... "

 By Cindy Waxer

AI Systems Communicating with Humans

Intriguing steps forward, ultimately about learning and updating the state of interactions.  Consider too the mention of trust, and implications of deeper agency between bots, assistants and their human users.

AI Systems Are Learning to Communicate With Humans
A computer science professor out of Carnegie Mellon is developing CoBots, or collaborative robots, to help people with simple tasks around the office.

The CoBots are also being taught effective communication based on more than just numerical data, with the hopes that the bots can gain human trust.

In the future, service robots equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) are bound to be a common sight. These bots will help people navigate crowded airports, serve meals, or even schedule meetings. ... "