AUTONOMOUS AND ADAPTIVE METHODS AND SYSTEM FOR SECURE, POLICY-BASED CONTROL OF REMOTE AND LOCALLY CONTROLLED COMPUTING DEVICES

• US 20150350254A1
• Filed: 06/02/2015
• Published: 12/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/02/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sequitur Labs, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Sequitur Labs, Inc.
• Inventors: Hendrick, Michael Thomas, Schaffner, Daniel, Rane, Abhijeet, Curry, Simon, Chenard, Paul, Ting, Vincent, Attfield, Philip, Narvaez, Julia
• Granted Patent: US 9,894,101 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/63 Location-dependent; Proximity-dependent
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/65 Environment-dependent, e.g. using captured environmental data

Abstract

An autonomous and adaptive method and system for secure, policy-based control of remote and locally controlled computing devices. The invention uses a policy-based access control mechanism to achieve adaptive and dynamic behavior modification based on the context of the local operating environment of the computing device. The modification system assesses the desirability of actions or outcomes as determined by the policy rules and modifies them accordingly, thus altering the behavior of the computing device. The system can utilize a machine learning technique, pattern matching and heuristic evaluation. When applied to the control of robotic and autonomous devices, the system allows the robot to offload adjudication to a remote system and also facilitates cooperative behaviors between robots operating in dynamic environments.

Claims

1. An adaptive policy modification system for computing devices, the system comprising:

a policy-based control system;

a context discovery subsystem for determining the context of the current operating environment of the computing device;

a data logging subsystem for capturing the contextual information from the context discovery subsystem;

a persistent memory for storing the data in the data logging subsystem;

an analytic subsystem for determining the desirability of activities and outcomes; and

a modification subsystem for modifying the policy rules in the policy-based control system.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the context discovery subsystem includes environment&

sensors.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the environmental sensors include at least one of

a visual camera sensor;

an infrared camera;

a night vision camera;

an audio microphone;

a heat sensor;

a gas detector;

a pressure sensor;

a magnetic field sensor;

a metal detector;

a radiation detector;

a GPS receiver;

an RF signal sensor;

an altimeter; and

an attitude sensor.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the context discovery subsystem includes a network interface for receiving external context data from an external source.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the analytic subsystem includes a machine learning subsystem for creating new policy rules in accordance with existing policy rules and new contextual data.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the analytic subsystem includes a heuristic subsystem for evaluating desirability of activities and outcomes that are determined by the policy-based control system.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the analytic subsystem includes a pattern matching subsystem for matching patterns of contextual data with historical patterns of contextual data stored in the data logging subsystem.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the policy-based control system resides locally on the mobile device.

9. The system of claim 1 including a network interface for transmitting and receiving digital communications.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the policy-based system resides remotely on a server accessed via the network interface.

11. A system for policy-based management of autonomous devices the system comprising:

a policy-based control system;

at least one autonomous device;

an adaptive poll modification subsystem; and

a network interface.

12. The system of claim 11 including at least one semi-autonomous device.

13. The system of claim 11 including an adjudicating decision subsystem for determining if policy adjudication will be executed locally on the device or remotely via a server.

14. The system of claim 11 including a cooperative tasking subsystem for assigning individual parts of a task to multiple devices to execute cooperatively.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the cooperative tasking subsystem assigns individual parts of a task to multiple devices to execute simultaneously.

16. The system of claim 11 including a hierarchical policy selection subsystem for overriding conflicting policy rules based on the level of authority of the policy rules.

17. The system of claim 11 including a policy sharing subsystem whereby one computing device can access the policy rules of any other computing device when network communications between the devices are enabled.

18. The system of claim 11 including a central control subsystem whereby a central server controls more than one remote device.

19. A method for adaptive policy modification for computing devices, the steps comprising:

discovering the context of the local execution environment of the computing device;

logging the contextual data into a database;

applying the policy rules to the contextual data to determine the outcome;

analyzing the outcome to determine desirability;

allowing the outcome to execute if it is desirable;

denying the outcome if it is undesirable; and

modifying the policy rules based on the result of the analysis.

20. The method of claim 19 further including the steps:

learning new rules from contextual data and existing policy rules;

modifying the policy rules with the new learned policy rules.

21. A method for policy-based management of autonomous devices, the steps comprising:

sensing the environment from sensors on the autonomous device;

discovering the context of the local execution environment of the computing device;

logging the contextual data into a database;

applying the policy rules to the contextual data to determine the outcome;

analyzing the outcome to determine its desirability;

allowing the outcome to execute if it is desirable;

denying the outcome if it is undesirable; and

modifying the policy rules based on the result of the outcome analysis.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein autonomous devices communicate with other autonomous devices to share policy rules.

23. The method of claim 21 wherein autonomous devices communicate with a server that adjudicates policy rules.