Operational resilience of additively manufactured parts to stealthy cyberphysical attacks using geometric and process digital twins

Journal Article · Fri Oct 31 00:00:00 EDT 2025 · Journal of Manufacturing Systems

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmsy.2025.10.009· OSTI ID:3002452

Cleeman, Jeremy ^[1]; Jackson, Adrian ^[1]; Patel, Anandkumar ^[1]; Wang, Zihan ^[2]; Feldhausen, Thomas ^[3]; Shao, Chenhui ^[4]; Xu, Hongyi ^[2]; Malhotra, Rajiv ^[1]

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1. Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, NJ (United States)
2. Univ. of Connecticut, Storrs, CT (United States)
3. Univ. of Texas at El Paso, TX (United States); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
4. Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)

Cyberphysical attacks on the digital backbone of Additive Manufacturing (AM) can compromise the printed part’s functionality. They can alter features in the digital geometry to introduce geometric defects (e.g., missing fillets) or alter process parameters to create local defects (e.g., voids). Addressing the downtime, waste, and quality deterioration associated with existing solutions requires operational resilience, i.e., rapid elimination or disruption of defect formation (to retain part function) without production stoppage or part disposal (to retain yield). This need is unmet due to the inherently unpredictable nature of attack-induced alterations, lack of access to the original geometric model for identification of altered geometric features, and in-process imposition of unknown process dynamics via attack-driven alteration of real-time-uncontrolled (or exogenous) parameters. This work establishes the above-mentioned operational resilience for the first time by creating two Digital Twins (DT). The Geometric DT (Geo-DT) is based on a unique physical-field-driven soft sensor and topology optimization method. The Process Digital Twin (Pro-DT) combines local defect quantification with a novel Reinforcement Learning formulation and training method. The importance of these methodological advances and the scalability of our approach are examined on a real AM testbed. It is shown that Geo-DT can correct geometric defects without access to the original digital geometry or explicit knowledge of attack-altered geometric features. Further, Pro-DT can accelerate real-time disruption of local defects despite attack-driven imposition of unknown process dynamics. We discuss how our framework goes beyond the contemporary focus on pre-attack security and in-attack detection towards resilience for AM and beyond.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Energy Efficiency Office. Advanced Materials & Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725; EE0008303
• OSTI ID: 3002452
• Journal Information: Journal of Manufacturing Systems, Journal Name: Journal of Manufacturing Systems Vol. 83; ISSN 0278-6125
• Publisher: Elsevier - Society of Manufacturing Engineers
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

Additive Manufacturing
Attack
Cyberphysical
Digital Twin
Resilience