A Case Study on the Cybersecurity of Social Robots

Abstract

During the last few years, we have observed a rapid increase in the number of robots that are manufactured and marketed for our homes. These social robots promise to become not just a personal assistant, but a companion that knows its owner»s tastes and habits. As the advances in artificial intelligence move the dream of home robots closer, exploitation techniques that could specifically target these robots need to be thoroughly examined. In this paper, we present our observations from performing an initial vulnerability analysis to a commercial social robot. Our results indicate that both manufacturers and application developers need to take cybersecurity into account when considering the use of their robots.