360 research outputs found
Blockchain Solutions for Multi-Agent Robotic Systems: Related Work and Open Questions
The possibilities of decentralization and immutability make blockchain
probably one of the most breakthrough and promising technological innovations
in recent years. This paper presents an overview, analysis, and classification
of possible blockchain solutions for practical tasks facing multi-agent robotic
systems. The paper discusses blockchain-based applications that demonstrate how
distributed ledger can be used to extend the existing number of research
platforms and libraries for multi-agent robotic systems.Comment: 5 pages, FRUCT-2019 conference pape
Controlling Robots using Artificial Intelligence and a Consortium Blockchain
Blockchain is a disruptive technology that is normally used within financial
applications, however it can be very beneficial also in certain robotic
contexts, such as when an immutable register of events is required. Among the
several properties of Blockchain that can be useful within robotic
environments, we find not just immutability but also decentralization of the
data, irreversibility, accessibility and non-repudiation. In this paper, we
propose an architecture that uses blockchain as a ledger and smart-contract
technology for robotic control by using external parties, Oracles, to process
data. We show how to register events in a secure way, how it is possible to use
smart-contracts to control robots and how to interface with external Artificial
Intelligence algorithms for image analysis. The proposed architecture is
modular and can be used in multiple contexts such as in manufacturing, network
control, robot control, and others, since it is easy to integrate, adapt,
maintain and extend to new domains.info:eu-repo/semantics/submittedVersio
Robot Workspace Monitoring using a Blockchain-based 3D Vision Approach
Blockchain has been used extensively for financial purposes,
but this technology can also be beneficial in other
contexts where multi-party cooperation, security and decentralization
of the data is essential. Properties such as
immutability, accessibility and non-repudiation and the existence
of smart-contracts make blockchain technology very
interesting in robotic contexts that require event registration
or integration with Artificial Intelligence. In this paper,
we propose a system that leverages blockchain as a
ledger to register events and information to be processed
by Oracles and uses smart-contracts to control robots by
adjusting their velocity, or stopping them, if a person enters
the robot working space without permission. We show
how blockchain can be used in computer vision problems by
interacting with multiple external parties, Oracles, that perform
image analysis and how it is possible to use multiple
smart-contracts for different tasks. The method proposed is
shown in a scenario representing a factory environment, but
since it is modular, it can be easily adapted and extended for
other contexts, allowing for simple integration and maintenance.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Detecting Robotic Anomalies using RobotChain
Robotic events can provide notable amounts of
information regarding a robot’s status, which can be extrapolated
to detect productivity, anomalies, malfunctions and used
for monitorization. However, when problems occur in sensitive
environments like a factory, the logs of a machine may be
discarded because they are susceptible to chances and malicious
intents. In this paper we propose to use RobotChain for anomaly
detection. RobotChain is a method to securely register robotic
events, using a blockchain, which ensures that once an event
gets registered on it, it’s secured and cannot be tampered with.
We show how this system can be leveraged with the module for
anomaly detection, that uses the information contained on the
blockchain to detect anomalies on a UR3 robot.This work was partially supported by the Tezos Fundation through a grant for project Robotchaininfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
RobotChain: Artificial Intelligence on a Blockchain using Tezos Technology
Blockchain technology is not only growing everyday at a fast-passed rhythm, but it is also a disruptive technology that has changed how we look at financial transactions. By providing a way
to trust an unknown network and by allowing us to conduct transactions without the need for a
central authority, blockchain has grown exponentially. Moreover, blockchain also provides decentralization of the data, immutability, accessibility, non-repudiation and irreversibility properties that makes this technology a must in many industries. But, even thought blockchain
provides interesting properties, it has not been extensively used outside the financial scope.
Similarly, robots have been increasingly used in factories to automate tasks that range from
picking objects, to transporting them and also to work collaboratively with humans to perform
complex tasks. It is important to enforce that robots act between legal and moral boundaries
and that their events and data are securely stored and auditable. This rarely happens, as robots
are programmed to do a specific task without certainty that that task will always be performed
correctly and their data is either locally stored, without security measures, or disregarded. This
means that the data, especially logs, can be altered, which means that robots and manufacturers can be accused of problems that they did not cause. Henceforth, in this work, we sought
to integrate blockchain with robotics with the goal to provide enhanced security to robots, to
the data and to leverage artificial intelligence algorithms. By doing an extensive overview of
the methods that integrate blockchain and artificial intelligence or robotics, we found that this
is a growing field but there is a lack of proposals that try to improve robotic systems by using
blockchain. It was also clear that most of the existing proposals that integrate artificial intelligence and blockchain, are focused on building marketplaces and only use the latter to storage
transactions. So, in this document, we proposed three different methods that use blockchain
to solve different problems associated with robots. The first one is a method to securely store
robot logs in a blockchain by using smart-contracts as storage and automatically detect when
anomalies occur in a robot by using the data contained in the blockchain and a smart-contract.
By using smart-contracts, it is assured that the data is secure and immutable as long as the
blockchain has enough peers to participate in the consensus process. The second method goes
beyond registering events to also register information about external sensors, like a camera,
and by using smart-contracts to allow Oracles to interact with the blockchain, it was possible to
leverage image analysis algorithms that can detect the presence of material to be picked. This
information is then inserted into a smart-contract that automatically defines the movement that
a robot should have, regarding the number of materials present to be picked. The third proposal
is a method that uses blockchain to store information about the robots and the images derived
from a Kinect. This information is then used by Oracles that check if there is any person located
inside a robot workspace. If there is any, this information is stored and different Oracles try to
identify the person. Then, a smart-contract acts appropriately by changing or even stopping the
robot depending on the identity of the person and if the person is located inside the warning or
the critical zone surrounding the robot.
With this work, we show how blockchain can be used in robotic environments and how it
can beneficial in contexts where multi-party cooperation, security, and decentralization of the
data is essential. We also show how Oracles can interact with the blockchain and distributively
cooperate to leverage artificial intelligence algorithms to perform analysis in the data that
allow us to detect robotic anomalies, material in images and the presence of people. We also show that smart-contracts can be used to perform more tasks than just serve the purpose of
automatically do monetary transactions. The proposed architectures are modular and can be
used in multiple contexts such as in manufacturing, network control, robot control, and others
since they are easy to integrate, adapt, maintain and extend to new domains. We expect
that the intersection of blockchain and robotics will shape part of the future of robotics once
blockchain is more widely used and easy to integrate. This integration will be very prominent
in tasks where robots need to behave under certain constraints, in swarm robotics due to the
fact that blockchain offers global information and in factories because the actions undertaken
by a robot can easily be extended to the rest of the robots by using smart-contracts.Hoje em dia Ă© possĂvel ver que a blockchain nĂŁo está apenas a crescer a um ritmo exponencial, mas que Ă© tambĂ©m uma tecnologia disruptiva que mudou a forma como trabalhamos com
transações financeiras. Ao fornecer uma maneira eficiente de confiar numa rede desconhecida
e de permitir realizar transações sem a necessidade de uma autoridade central, a blockchain
cresceu rapidamente. Além disso, a blockchain fornece também descentralização de dados,
imutabilidade, acessibilidade, não-repúdio e irreversibilidade, o que torna esta tecnologia indispensável em muitos setores. Mas, mesmo fornecendo propriedades interessantes, a blockchain não tem sido amplamente utilizada fora do âmbito financeiro. Da mesma forma, os robôs
têm sido cada vez mais utilizados em fábricas para automatizar tarefas que vão desde pegar
objetos, transportá-los e colaborar com humanos para realizar tarefas complexas. Porém, é
importante impor que os robĂ´s atuem entre certos limites legais e morais e que seus eventos
e dados são armazenados com segurança e que estes possam ser auditáveis. O problema é que
isso raramente acontece. Os robĂ´s sĂŁo programados para executar uma tarefa especĂfica sem
se ter total certeza de que essa tarefa irá ser executada sempre de maneira correta, e os seus
dados são armazenados localmente, desconsiderando a segurança dos dados. Sendo que em
muitas ocasiões, não existe qualquer segurança. Isso significa que os dados, especialmente os
logs, podem ser alterados, o que pode resultar em que os robĂ´s e, pela mesma linha de pensamento, os fabricantes, possam ser acusados de problemas que nĂŁo causaram. Tendo isto em
consideração, neste trabalho, procuramos integrar a blockchain com a robótica, com o objetivo
de proporcionar maior segurança aos robôs e aos dados que geram e potenciar ainda a utilização de algoritmos de inteligência artificial. Fazendo uma visão abrangente dos métodos que
propõem integrar a blockchain e inteligência artificial ou robótica, descobrimos que este é um
campo em crescimento, mas que há uma falta de propostas que tentem melhorar os sistemas
robóticos utilizando a blockchain. Ficou também claro que a maioria das propostas existentes
que integram inteligência artificial e blockchain estão focadas na construção de marketplaces e
só utilizam a blockchain para armazenar a informação sobre as transações que foram executadas. Assim, neste documento, propomos três métodos que utilizam a blockchain para resolver
diferentes problemas associados a robôs. O primeiro é um método para armazenar, com segurança, logs de robôs dentro de uma blockchain, utilizando para isso smart-contracts como
armazenamento. Neste método foi também proposta uma maneira de detetar anomalias em
robĂ´s automaticamente, utilizando para isso os dados contidos na blockchain e smart-contracts
para definir a lógica do algoritmo. Ao utilizar smart-contracts, é garantido que os dados são seguros e imutáveis, desde que a blockchain contenha nós suficientes a participar no algoritmo de
consenso. O segundo método vai além de registar eventos, para registar também informações
sobre sensores externos, como uma câmara, e utilizando smart-contracts para permitir que Ă“raculos interajam com a blockchain, foi possĂvel utilizar algoritmos de análise de imagens, que
podem detetar a presença de material para ser recolhido. Esta informação é então inserida
num smart-contract que define automaticamente o movimento que um robĂ´ deve ter, tendo
em consideração a quantidade de material à espera para ser recolhida. A terceira proposta é
um método que utiliza a blockchain para armazenar informações sobre robôs, e imagens provenientes de uma Kinect. Esta informação é então utilizada por Óraculos que verificam se existe
alguma pessoa dentro do um espaço de trabalho de um robô. Se existir alguém, essa informação
Ă© armazenada e diferentes Ă“raculos tentam identificar a pessoa. No fim, um smart-contract
age apropriadamente, mudando ou até mesmo parando o robô, dependendo da identidade da Com este trabalho, mostramos como a blockchain pode ser utilizada em ambientes onde existam robôs e como esta pode ser benéfica em contextos onde a cooperação entre várias entidades, a segurança e a descentralização dos dados são essenciais. Mostramos também como
Ă“raculos podem interagir com a blockchain e cooperar de forma distribuĂda, para alavancar
algoritmos de inteligência artificial de forma a realizar análises nos dados, o que nos permite
detetar anomalias robóticas, material para ser recolhido e a presença de pessoas em imagens.
Mostramos também que os smart-contracts podem ser utilizados para executar mais tarefas do
que servir o propósito de fazer transações monetárias de forma automática. As arquiteturas
propostas neste trabalho são modulares e podem ser utilizadas em vários contextos, como no
fabrico de peças, controle de robô e outras. Devido ao facto de que as arquiteturas propostas,
sĂŁo fáceis de integrar, adaptar, manter e estender a novos domĂnios. A nossa opiniĂŁo Ă© que a
interseção entre a blockchain e a robótica irá moldar parte do futuro da robótica moderna assim
que a blockchain seja mais utilizada e fácil de integrar em sistemas robóticos. Esta integração
será muito proeminente em tarefas onde os robôs precisam de se comportar sob certas restrições, em enxames de robôs, devido ao fato de que a blockchain fornece informação global sobre
o estado da rede, e também em fábricas, porque as ações realizadas por um robô podem ser
facilmente estendidas ao resto dos robôs, e porque fornece um mecanismo extra de segurança
aos dados e a todas as ações que são efetuadas com ajuda de smart-contracts
Collaborative autonomy in heterogeneous multi-robot systems
As autonomous mobile robots become increasingly connected and widely deployed in different domains, managing multiple robots and their interaction is key to the future of ubiquitous autonomous systems. Indeed, robots are not individual entities anymore. Instead, many robots today are deployed as part of larger fleets or in teams. The benefits of multirobot collaboration, specially in heterogeneous groups, are multiple. Significantly higher degrees of situational awareness and understanding of their environment can be achieved when robots with different operational capabilities are deployed together. Examples of this include the Perseverance rover and the Ingenuity helicopter that NASA has deployed in Mars, or the highly heterogeneous robot teams that explored caves and other complex environments during the last DARPA Sub-T competition.
This thesis delves into the wide topic of collaborative autonomy in multi-robot systems, encompassing some of the key elements required for achieving robust collaboration: solving collaborative decision-making problems; securing their operation, management and interaction; providing means for autonomous coordination in space and accurate global or relative state estimation; and achieving collaborative situational awareness through distributed perception and cooperative planning. The thesis covers novel formation control algorithms, and new ways to achieve accurate absolute or relative localization within multi-robot systems. It also explores the potential of distributed ledger technologies as an underlying framework to achieve collaborative decision-making in distributed robotic systems.
Throughout the thesis, I introduce novel approaches to utilizing cryptographic elements and blockchain technology for securing the operation of autonomous robots, showing that sensor data and mission instructions can be validated in an end-to-end manner. I then shift the focus to localization and coordination, studying ultra-wideband (UWB) radios and their potential. I show how UWB-based ranging and localization can enable aerial robots to operate in GNSS-denied environments, with a study of the constraints and limitations. I also study the potential of UWB-based relative localization between aerial and ground robots for more accurate positioning in areas where GNSS signals degrade. In terms of coordination, I introduce two new algorithms for formation control that require zero to minimal communication, if enough degree of awareness of neighbor robots is available. These algorithms are validated in simulation and real-world experiments. The thesis concludes with the integration of a new approach to cooperative path planning algorithms and UWB-based relative localization for dense scene reconstruction using lidar and vision sensors in ground and aerial robots
Agent-based model of citizen energy communities used to negotiate bilateral contracts in electricity markets
ABSTRACT: The worldwide targets for carbon-neutral societies increased the penetration of distributed generation and storage. Smart cities now play a key role in achieving these targets by considering the alliances of their demand and supply assets as local citizen energy communities. These communities need to have enough weight to trade electricity in wholesale markets. Trading of electricity can be done in spot markets or by bilateral contracts involving customers and suppliers. This paper is devoted to bilateral contracting, which is modeled as a negotiation process involving an iterative exchange of offers and counter-offers. This article focuses on local citizen energy communities. Specifically, it presents team and single-agent negotiation models, where each member has its sets of strategies and tactics and also its decision model. Community agents are equipped with intra-team strategies and decision protocols. To evaluate the benefits of CECs, models of both coalition formation and management have been adapted. This paper also describes a case study on forward bilateral contracts, involving a retailer agent and three different types of citizen energy communities. The results demonstrate the benefits of CECs during the negotiation of private bilateral contracts of electricity. Furthermore, they also demonstrate that in the case of using a representative strategy, the selection of the mediator may be critical for achieving a good deal.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
The role of Artificial Intelligence and distributed computing in IoT applications
[EN]The exchange of ideas between scientists and technicians, from both academic and business areas, is essential in order to ease the development of systems which can meet the demands of today’s society. Technology transfer in this field is still a challenge and, for that reason, this type of contributions are notably considered in this compilation. This book brings in discussions and publications concerning the development of innovative techniques of IoT complex problems. The technical program focuses both on high quality and diversity, with contributions in well-established and evolving areas of research. Specifically, 10 chapters were submitted to this book. The editors particularly encouraged and welcomed contributions on AI and distributed computing in IoT applications.Financed by regional government of Castilla y León and FEDER funds
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