3 Application Prospect
As distributed systems, blockchain-based robot swarm system emphasizes the autonomous nodes that have low-frequency interaction between nodes. At present,
blockchain-based swarm robot system is in the infancy. Researchers have done various
research on introduction of blockchain technologies to robotic systems. Work conducted by Eduardo Castelló Ferrer presents the benefits of combining the blockchain
[5]. The authors of RoboChain presented a framework to tackle privacy issues
regarding using personal data by robots during a human–robot interaction [6].
Jason A. Tran, et al. propose a novel protocol, SwarmDAG, that enables the maintenance of a distributed ledger-based on the concept of extended virtual synchrony while
managing and tolerating network partitions [7]. Overall, the benefit from blockchainbased swarm robots system will mainly focus on information safety, distributed
decision-making, and collaborative behaviors.
3.1 Information Safety
As a network-enabled system, swarm robotics hardly ensures the safety and reliability
of information transmission in a complex environment. Higgins et al. present comprehensive survey of security challenges in swarm robotics [8]: tampered swarm
members or failing sensors; attacked or noisy communication channels; loss of
availability.
Blockchain can provide reliable peer-to-peer communication with security measures over a trustless network, introduce a way to trust the data, trust other participants,
provision of core services such as data confidentiality, data integrity, entity authentication, and data origin authentication.
Blockchain can provide a reliable asynchronous communication mechanism in
distributed network, assure all the nodes in the network can receive information that
been verified. In the blockchain encryption scheme, techniques such as public key and
digital signature cryptography are accepted means of not only making transactions
using unsafe and shared channels but also of proving the identity of specific agents in a
network. Blockchain uses the public key and private key generated by the hash
algorithm to provide the communication address and identity and uses asymmetric
encryption and digital signature to implement encrypted transaction. The unique distributed architecture, consensus mechanism chain-based data structure ensures that the
reliable and trusted transmission of operational information, in the environment of
failure or destruction of some communication nodes.
Through consensus protocol, all the transaction information will be verified by all
the nodes in the network to assure correction, once the information has been blocked in
the blockchain, with hash algorithm and time-stamp technology, the data have the
feature of veracity, tamper-proof, traceability, Protect against malicious attack.
3.2 Distributed Decision-Making
Distributed decision-making tasks are divided into consensus achievement problems
and task allocation problems [9]. Distributed decision-making algorithms have played a
An Overview of Blockchain-Based Swarm Robotics System
355
As distributed systems, blockchain-based robot swarm system emphasizes the autonomous nodes that have low-frequency interaction between nodes. At present,
blockchain-based swarm robot system is in the infancy. Researchers have done various
research on introduction of blockchain technologies to robotic systems. Work conducted by Eduardo Castelló Ferrer presents the benefits of combining the blockchain
[5]. The authors of RoboChain presented a framework to tackle privacy issues
regarding using personal data by robots during a human–robot interaction [6].
Jason A. Tran, et al. propose a novel protocol, SwarmDAG, that enables the maintenance of a distributed ledger-based on the concept of extended virtual synchrony while
managing and tolerating network partitions [7]. Overall, the benefit from blockchainbased swarm robots system will mainly focus on information safety, distributed
decision-making, and collaborative behaviors.
3.1 Information Safety
As a network-enabled system, swarm robotics hardly ensures the safety and reliability
of information transmission in a complex environment. Higgins et al. present comprehensive survey of security challenges in swarm robotics [8]: tampered swarm
members or failing sensors; attacked or noisy communication channels; loss of
availability.
Blockchain can provide reliable peer-to-peer communication with security measures over a trustless network, introduce a way to trust the data, trust other participants,
provision of core services such as data confidentiality, data integrity, entity authentication, and data origin authentication.
Blockchain can provide a reliable asynchronous communication mechanism in
distributed network, assure all the nodes in the network can receive information that
been verified. In the blockchain encryption scheme, techniques such as public key and
digital signature cryptography are accepted means of not only making transactions
using unsafe and shared channels but also of proving the identity of specific agents in a
network. Blockchain uses the public key and private key generated by the hash
algorithm to provide the communication address and identity and uses asymmetric
encryption and digital signature to implement encrypted transaction. The unique distributed architecture, consensus mechanism chain-based data structure ensures that the
reliable and trusted transmission of operational information, in the environment of
failure or destruction of some communication nodes.
Through consensus protocol, all the transaction information will be verified by all
the nodes in the network to assure correction, once the information has been blocked in
the blockchain, with hash algorithm and time-stamp technology, the data have the
feature of veracity, tamper-proof, traceability, Protect against malicious attack.
3.2 Distributed Decision-Making
Distributed decision-making tasks are divided into consensus achievement problems
and task allocation problems [9]. Distributed decision-making algorithms have played a
An Overview of Blockchain-Based Swarm Robotics System
355