Network Forensic Investigation of Collaborative Robots: A Case Study

Collaborative robots are currently facing significant security challenges and issues in the real world. It is well-established that representations of security issues may lead to human loss or property damage. This study aims to identify current robotics network forensic techniques to address the need for dedicated investigative capabilities. Specifically, it analyzes the ROS2-based communication network packets of collaborative robots. Network forensic investigation of collaborative robots helps in identifying and analyzing the important artifacts/evidence. The network forensic techniques discussed in this article can be used to acquire and analyze the artifacts related to tampered collaborative robots. Moreover, the information related to the environmental architecture of collaborative robots can be recovered using metadata of the network packets.