The Boeing Company

Jack D Lawson

Timothy McNally Mitchell

Jason Wayne Shelton

Greg A Kimberly

Charles D Royalty

Todd William Gould

Richard P Nguyen

Method and apparatus for ensuring safety controls for a network-connected autonomous vehicle. The method and apparatus monitor a respective state of each of one or more data communication connections one or more data communication networks. One of a plurality of operational modes for the autonomous vehicle is selected based on the monitored states. Each of the plurality of operational modes defines a respective level of autonomous control for the autonomous vehicle. The method and apparatus transition operation of the autonomous vehicle to the selected operational mode.

Safety controls for network connected autonomous vehicle

Techniques for enforcing stratified aircraft security are presented. The techniques are performed using an aircraft-based authentication and authorization unit and a wireless transceiver, where the authentication and authorization unit includes an electronically stored machine learning classifier. The techniques include: receiving and verifying authentication data for an employee from a mobile access device; receiving employee data from the mobile access device, the employee data including at least information representing an access event of the employee with the aircraft; providing an input to the machine learning classifier, the input including at least aircraft data and the employee data; obtaining an output from the machine learning classifier, the output indicating a level of access authorized; and providing an alert in response to a level of access by the at least one employee for the access event exceeding the level of access authorized.

Stratified aircraft access

Systems and methods are provided for authenticating aircraft communications using detected difference of on board electronics. One embodiment is a method that includes detecting a request for an exchange of data between an aircraft and an off-board system, and selecting a Line Replaceable Unit (LRU) of the aircraft based on at least one parameter of the request. The method also includes issuing a challenge to a Physically Unclonable Function (PUF) connected with at least one electronic component of the LRU, and obtaining a hardware signature based on a response of the at least one electronic component of the LRU to the challenge. The PUF derives the hardware signature from a unique physical property of the at least one electronic component. The method further includes validating the hardware signature to authenticate the request and initiate the exchange of data between the aircraft and the off-board system.

Authenticating an aircraft data exchange using detected differences of onboard electronics

Methods, apparatus and computer program products are provided to authenticate and determine the integrity a software part. In this regard, a software part is authenticated and its integrity is determined by determining a first hash of the digital data that comprises the software part. If the air vehicle lacks data communications connectivity with an off-board security system, the method determines the authenticity and integrity of the software part by decrypting an encrypted hash of a software part in accordance with a public-private key pair to create a decrypted hash, comparing the first hash with the decrypted hash and transmitting the first hash to the off-board security system once data communications connectivity is established. Conversely, if the air vehicle has data communications connectivity with the off-board security system, the method determines the integrity of the software part by transmitting the first hash to the off-board security system for comparison with a whitelist.

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Bellevue, WA, United States of America

Jack D Lawson