METHODOLOGY FOR ANALYSING THE ELECTROMAGNETIC VULNERABILITY OF AUTONOMOUS ROBOTS – MAVERA

Society as a whole is making increasing use of electronic systems in the broad sense, but also particularly robotics, whether in the context of connected objects, home automation or industrial production. But the drive towards this robotisation of our society is also affecting the armies, which are making considerable efforts worldwide to introduce these robots into most military operations, for observation and decision-making, for the preservation of humans in high-risk actions, but also for a number of offensive operations.

These electronic systems have or will have remarkable capabilities for action and autonomy through the use of extremely sophisticated sensors and computing units. But their effectiveness is entirely dependent on the preservation, during their intervention, of this electronic 'intelligence'. Thus, at the same time as this robotic sphere is developing, a nebula of intentional and particularly electromagnetic aggression is developing to oppose or harm this robotic space. Taking into account this potentially damaging electromagnetic environment is essential both for civil society (one can imagine the impact of an electromagnetic attack on hospitals, energy networks, communication networks, electrical mobility, etc.) and for the defence community in order to protect our robotic capacity or to neutralise that of the opposing side.
The quality of the analysis of the vulnerability of electronic systems to intentional electromagnetic interferences (IEMI) is conditioned by the methodology for studying the electromagnetic susceptibility of these same systems, i.e. their response to any temporal waveform arriving at their inputs or, more broadly, at their boundaries. The particularity of IEMI is their total absence of standardisation ; the limitations of the waveforms are due solely to the imagination of those who conceive them or to an impossibility of technological realisation at a given moment. Threatening waveforms and the susceptibility characteristics of the systems they target are both governed by one-to-one relationships: Isolate electromagnetic susceptibility characteristics on system electronics (susceptibility type) results in the determination of associated temporal patterns in the IEMI set.

The partners (IMS Bordeaux, IES Montpellier and CEA Gramat) in this proposal for the ASTRID MAVERA project (Methodology for Analysing the Electromagnetic Vulnerability of Autonomous Robots) have for many years been developing work relating to the analysis of the electromagnetic susceptibility of electronic systems to IEMI. This work has made it possible to design platforms for measuring this susceptibility, to characterise and model a large number of types of susceptibility and to think jointly (in particular within the framework of SPARTE a joint research laboratory) on the development of a common approach to the analysis of the susceptibility of any connected autonomous system (SAC). The aim of the proposal is to develop a methodology for analysing the electromagnetic susceptibility for these systems which can be used, among others, by all designers of these systems for their protection.