Lessons Learned from the “Hack My Robot” Competition and Considerations for Construction Applications

The construction industry is going through a digital transformation where automation and robotics are slowly making their way into construction projects. This change brings numerous benefits, such as cost and time efficiency and higher accuracy and quality. At the same time, it raises cybersecurity concerns. Since most construction environments are far from being human-free in the near future, the importance of providing robust cybersecurity when utilizing cyber-physical systems such as robots is augmented. The use of robotics in construction processes has long been under academia’s and industry’s spotlight, but the cybersecurity aspects have not received the attention they deserve. Several surveys have shown low awareness among construction stakeholders about cybersecurity, which increases the need for further studies on this topic. This study provides an overview of the first academic-driven cybersecurity competition in the construction context, Hack My Robot (HMR), as part of CSAW’22, the most comprehensive student-run cybersecurity event in the world. HMR was held for the first time at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD). The competition had two main rounds: the qualification round and the final round, where students presented their ideas to compromise the provided robotic system’s functionality and the collected information. The system used in the competition imitated a construction progress monitoring robot that utilizes Robotic Operating System (ROS). This paper presents how this competition aims to contribute to construction cybersecurity efforts, what main outcomes were obtained, and how it will be improved in the upcoming editions.