Mechatronic Security and Robot Authentication

Robot security is becoming more and more a serious issue for many modern applications. Robot security matters are still not intensively addressed in the published literature. The goal of this paper is to explore possible identification and security mechanisms which fit to robot technologies and their operating environment. To secure transactions between robots deployed in open service, robots need first to be securely identified ¿as persons¿ with unique provable identities. Robots rolling from a production line are assumed to be equal objects; therefore the first necessary action is to personalize robots and give them unclonable identities. A sort of ¿electronic mutation¿ technology was specified and proposed to create a non-reversible and non-repeatable robot identity, which is at the same time securely provable [6]. The identity exhibits properties similar to those of human DNA. The resulting clone-resistant or (unclonable) identity is adapted and proposed to be embedded in a robot environment. The goal is also to diffuse the identity traces possibly into all robot activities similarly as the human DNA do throughout the whole body of a biological creature. The identity proposed is made traceable through cryptographic signatures linked to relevant robot mechanical and electronic activities as a step towards ¿mechatronic security¿. The work is also aiming to stimulate discussions on robot security issues or in general the question of ¿mechatronic security¿.