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Real-Time Coordination of a Foraging Robot Swarm Using Blockchain Smart Contracts

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Swarm Intelligence (ANTS 2022)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 13491))

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Abstract

We present a novel control scheme for robot swarms that exploits the computation layer of a blockchain to coordinate the actions of individual robots in real-time. To accomplish this, we deploy a blockchain smart contract that acts as a “decentralized supervisor” during a swarm foraging task. Our results show that using blockchain-based global coordination rules can improve the foraging behavior of robot swarms, while maintaining a decentralized, scalable, and democratic system in which every robot contributes homogeneously to the decision-making process.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partially supported by the program of Concerted Research Actions (ARC) of the Université libre de Bruxelles and by the Brussels-Capital Region via the Brussels International contract n. BI-MB-531-004021. A. Reina and M. Dorigo acknowledge support from the Belgian F.R.S.-FNRS, of which they are Chargé de Recherches and Research Director, respectively.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. IRIDIA, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium

    Alexandre Pacheco, Volker Strobel, Andreagiovanni Reina & Marco Dorigo

Authors
  1. Alexandre Pacheco
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  2. Volker Strobel
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  3. Andreagiovanni Reina
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  4. Marco Dorigo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alexandre Pacheco .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium

    Marco Dorigo

  2. University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany

    Heiko Hamann

  3. University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

    Manuel López-Ibáñez

  4. University of Málaga, Málaga, Spain

    José García-Nieto

  5. Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa

    Andries Engelbrecht

  6. Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA, USA

    Carlo Pinciroli

  7. Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium

    Volker Strobel

  8. Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium

    Christian Camacho-Villalón

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Pacheco, A., Strobel, V., Reina, A., Dorigo, M. (2022). Real-Time Coordination of a Foraging Robot Swarm Using Blockchain Smart Contracts. In: Dorigo, M., et al. Swarm Intelligence. ANTS 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13491. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20176-9_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20176-9_16

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-20175-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-20176-9

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