Generalized Attack Model for Networked Control Systems, Evaluation of Control Methods

Networked Control Systems (NCSs) have been implemented in several different industries. The integration with advanced communication networks and computing techniques allows for the enhancement of efficiency of industrial control systems. Despite all the advantages that NCSs bring to industry, they remain at risk to a spectrum of physical and cyber-attacks. In this paper, we elaborate on security vulnerabilities of NCSs, and examine how these vulnerabilities may be exploited when attacks occur. A general model of NCS designed with three different controllers, i.e., proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controllers, Model Predictive control (MPC) and Emotional Learning Controller (ELC) are studied. Then three different types of attacks are applied to evaluate the system performance. For the case study, a networked pacemaker system using the Zeeman nonlinear heart model (ZHM) as the plant combined with the above-mentioned controllers to test the system performance when under attacks. The results show that with Emotional Learning Controller (ELC), the pacemaker is able to track the ECG signal with high fidelity even under different attack scenarios.