Cybersecurity: Protecting a Teleoperated ROS 2 Quadruped Robot

Abstract

This paper proposes a defense-in-depth cybersecurity architecture for a mobile robot (Unitree Go2 Pro) that integrates existing ROS 2 security mechanisms into a unified framework for secure wireless remote operation. Rather than relying solely on a standard SROS2 deployment, the proposed approach combines network segmentation, middleware-level security enforced through SROS2 in Enforce mode, controlled DDS communication with CycloneDDS, and Docker-based container isolation. A Jetson Orin Nano acts as a gateway, enabling controlled node discovery, restricted access to critical topics, and communication exclusively among authorized entities. The architecture is experimentally validated on a real quadruped robotic platform, evaluating both its functionality and computational impact. The results demonstrate effective protection against unauthorized access with a reduced performance overhead, showing that multiple complementary security layers can be integrated into an embedded ROS 2 system without compromising its operation.