Secure Robotics: Navigating Challenges at the Nexus of Safety, Trust, and Cybersecurity in Cyber-Physical Systems

The growing pervasiveness of robotic and embodied artificial intelligence systems in daily life and within cyber-physical environments highlights a complex web of challenges at the intersection of robotic safety, human-to-robot trust, and cybersecurity. This article explores these challenges by emphasising the crucial role of security in establishing and maintaining trust between humans and robots, which is integral to successfully adopting and operating these systems in human environments. Safety considerations include mitigating the risks of physical harm and environmental damage due to robotic malfunctions or cyberattacks, particularly in autonomous robots requiring high built-in safety measures. From a cybersecurity perspective, these systems face unique challenges due to their complex, interconnected software and hardware components that necessitate robust protection against data breaches to ensure secure data communication. Additionally, the dynamic interaction of these systems with the physical environment adds a layer of complexity, which makes the safety, security, and reliability of these interactions a vital component of the overall security strategy. This article reviews these areas within the cyber-physical systems paradigm by focusing on engineering fail-safe mechanisms, the importance of trust and ethical responsibility in human-robot interactions, and the need for resilient cybersecurity measures. At this nexus, a table of crossover challenges illustrates the intricacy of integrating safety, trust, and security in robotic systems. This article introduces “secure robotics” as a new paradigm to address these collective challenges with a novel model to provide a structured methodology for evaluating and enhancing robotic system performance that symbolises the convergence of theoretical constructs with empirical analysis. By defining secure robotics, this article establishes a framework for advancing robotics in the cyber-physical era in alignment with current technological trends while anticipating future developments. This framework positions secure robotics as a key contributor to the evolution of cyber-physical systems.