A Reinforcement Learning-Based Parameter Tuning Approach for a Secure Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control System

Connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) rely on communication channels to improve safety and efficiency. However, this connectivity leaves them vulnerable to potential cyberattacks, such as false data injection (FDI) attacks. We can mitigate the effect of FDI attacks by designing secure control techniques. However, tuning control parameters is essential for the safety and security of such techniques, and there is no systematic approach to achieving that. In this article, our primary focus is on cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC), a key component of CAVs. We develop a secure CACC by integrating model-based and learning-based approaches to detect and mitigate FDI attacks in real-time. We analyze the stability of the proposed resilient controller through Lyapunov stability analysis, identifying sufficient conditions for its effectiveness. We use these sufficient conditions and develop a reinforcement learning (RL)-based tuning algorithm to adjust the parameter gains of the controller, observer, and FDI attack estimator, ensuring the safety and security of the developed CACC under varying conditions. We evaluated the performance of the developed controller before and after optimizing parameters, and the results show about a 50% improvement in accuracy of the FDI attack estimation and a 76% enhancement in safe following distance with the optimized controller in each scenario.