Supervisory Control of Discrete-Event Systems under Attacks: An Overview and Outlook

Due to insecure network-based communications, cyber-physical systems face the risks of cyber attacks which might result in catastrophic damage. This paper provides an overview of existing approaches preventing damage caused by cyber attacks in the supervisory control of cyber-physical systems. The objective is to identify missing pieces, possible links and determine new directions for further research to improve the existing literature. For this purpose, first, we classify the current research works under a framework consisting of three dimensions: 1) the communication channel where an attack can happen, 2) the attack impact on the transmitted data, and 3) the mechanism to prevent damage. This classification will then help us to compare the existing techniques and investigate how they can be improved to get closer to the ideal scenario where most kinds of attacks can be handled so that the closed-loop system remains safe.