Safe Autonomy and Secure Operation in Cyber–Physical and Unmanned Systems: Attack‑Resilient Perception, Planning and Control

Dear Colleagues,

Cyber–physical systems (CPSs) are sophisticated networks that integrate computational and physical elements, enabling seamless interaction between digital and real-world environments. Due to their growing role in vital infrastructures, from healthcare to transportation, researchers in various sectors have become increasingly interested in them. Attack detection is crucial, as it enables the early identification of any cyber threats or malicious activities aimed at disrupting the normal operation of CPSs. Additionally, secure state estimation, which is the process of accurately assessing the current state of a system while ensuring its confidentiality and integrity, is equally essential in CPSs. The aim of this Special Issue is to create a focused platform for discourse and progress surrounding the enhancement of attack detection and secure state estimation in cyber–physical systems (CPSs). We seek to propel the development and application of innovative methodologies, ensuring the security and safety of CPSs against evolving cyber threats.

Cyber–physical and unmanned systems (UAS/UGV/USVs) are rapidly transitioning from controlled pilots to safety‑critical deployments in logistics, inspection, mobility, and public infrastructure. While classical CPS security has emphasized secure state estimation and attack detection, modern safe autonomy additionally demands collision avoidance, reliable target tracking, robust perception, and runtime assurance—all under adversarial, faulty, or uncertain conditions. We therefore invite work that bridges system security and safe autonomy, targeting end‑to‑end resilience across sensing, estimation, perception, decision‑making, control, and verification. We particularly welcome contributions that are (i) attack‑aware by design, (ii) verifiable and certifiable, and (iii) validated in realistic scenarios or open benchmarks.

The scope of this Special Issue includes (but is not limited to) the following topics:

• Security in CPSs;
• Model-based and data-based security techniques for CPSs;
• Unmanned system security architectures for safe operation;
• Attack detection/identification and intrusion-/fault-diagnosis for autonomous systems;
• Secure/robust state estimation (sensor spoofing/DoS resilience; multi-sensor fusion under attacks);
• Adversarially robust perception for collision avoidance (camera/LiDAR/radar; sensor integrity);
• Reliable tracking and guidance under disturbances, faults, and cyberattacks;
• Sense-and-avoid, geofencing, and cooperative deconfliction with communication constraints;
• Runtime assurance, safety monitors, shields, and fail‑safe supervisory control;
• Resilient planning and control (tube MPC, game‑theoretic planning, stochastic/FRT reachability);
• Learning‑enabled safety: robust RL, safe imitation learning, conformal prediction, uncertainty quantification;
• Digital twins and scenario generation for safety/security testing; simulation‑to‑real validation;
• Formal methods, contracts, and certification‑oriented evidence for AI‑enabled autonomy;
• Applications: autonomous driving, drone delivery/inspection, smart grid and energy CPSs, industrial process control, maritime/underwater robotics, smart rail and mining CPSs;
• Datasets, benchmarks, toolchains, and reproducible evaluations for safe and secure autonomy.

Prof. Dr. Anyang Lu
Guest Editor

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• cyber–physical systems
• unmanned aerial/ground/surface systems
• safe autonomy
• collision avoidance
• reliable tracking
• attack detection
• secure state estimation
• runtime assurance
• adversarially robust perception
• resilient planning and control