crucial role in the development of swarm systems. Limited by the environment and
interaction mechanisms, the swarm robots system is often difficult to obtain global
information through a centralized control node to form collaborative decision-making.
Blockchain ensures all participants in a decentralized network share identical views
of global information, any node can give collective decision opinion. With smart
contract-based voting system, the swarm robot system will achieve decision-making
consistency, and can also use MultiSig technologies to achieve decision-making. For
the decision made by Swarm robotics, a new joined node automatically synchronizes
the blockchain data, know the previous decision, and operation accordingly.
3.3 Behaviors Collaboration
As a programmable distributed infrastructure, blockchain provides a basic information
environment for the autonomous task coordination of robots swarms systems. Robot
swarms may only operate the same behavior, it is also possible that different nodes
perform different activities to accomplish a certain goal.
When different nodes in a robot swarm have different behaviors, we can use Smart
Contracts to represent different behaviors. In addition, it is also possible to characterize
an activity by using blockchain and hierarchically link different blockchains using
sidechain techniques [10], which would allow robotic swarm nodes to act differently
according to the particular blockchain being used, where different parameters can be
customized for different swarm behaviors.
4 Swarm Robotics-Oriented Blockchain Model
As distributed systems, the combination of robotic swarm systems with blockchain can
provide the necessary capabilities to make robotic swarm operations more secure,
autonomous, and flexible.
This section presents a Swarm robotics-oriented, seven-layer conceptual model for
the typical architecture and major components of blockchain systems. This model will
form a blockchain-based information environment for swarm robotics (Fig. 2).
Physical layer. This layer is platform and environment that the blockchain runs,
which encapsulates various kinds of physical entities (e.g., UUV, UTV, UAV),
store resource, computing resource, network infrastructure, and operation system,
etc.
Data Layer. Ledge module provides the chained data blocks, together with the
related techniques including asymmetric encryption, time-stamping, hash algorithms, and Merkle trees. The cryptographic module provides basic cryptographic
algorithms for other components, as well as key maintenance and storage; the data
storage module uses specific databases, such as LevelDB, MySQL, etc. to store
ledger data, user data, and so on. The user management module is used to implement access control and node identification authentication.
Network layer. This layer completes the data transmission with other nodes by
discovering neighbor nodes, establishing communication links, and provide node
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interaction mechanisms, the swarm robots system is often difficult to obtain global
information through a centralized control node to form collaborative decision-making.
Blockchain ensures all participants in a decentralized network share identical views
of global information, any node can give collective decision opinion. With smart
contract-based voting system, the swarm robot system will achieve decision-making
consistency, and can also use MultiSig technologies to achieve decision-making. For
the decision made by Swarm robotics, a new joined node automatically synchronizes
the blockchain data, know the previous decision, and operation accordingly.
3.3 Behaviors Collaboration
As a programmable distributed infrastructure, blockchain provides a basic information
environment for the autonomous task coordination of robots swarms systems. Robot
swarms may only operate the same behavior, it is also possible that different nodes
perform different activities to accomplish a certain goal.
When different nodes in a robot swarm have different behaviors, we can use Smart
Contracts to represent different behaviors. In addition, it is also possible to characterize
an activity by using blockchain and hierarchically link different blockchains using
sidechain techniques [10], which would allow robotic swarm nodes to act differently
according to the particular blockchain being used, where different parameters can be
customized for different swarm behaviors.
4 Swarm Robotics-Oriented Blockchain Model
As distributed systems, the combination of robotic swarm systems with blockchain can
provide the necessary capabilities to make robotic swarm operations more secure,
autonomous, and flexible.
This section presents a Swarm robotics-oriented, seven-layer conceptual model for
the typical architecture and major components of blockchain systems. This model will
form a blockchain-based information environment for swarm robotics (Fig. 2).
Physical layer. This layer is platform and environment that the blockchain runs,
which encapsulates various kinds of physical entities (e.g., UUV, UTV, UAV),
store resource, computing resource, network infrastructure, and operation system,
etc.
Data Layer. Ledge module provides the chained data blocks, together with the
related techniques including asymmetric encryption, time-stamping, hash algorithms, and Merkle trees. The cryptographic module provides basic cryptographic
algorithms for other components, as well as key maintenance and storage; the data
storage module uses specific databases, such as LevelDB, MySQL, etc. to store
ledger data, user data, and so on. The user management module is used to implement access control and node identification authentication.
Network layer. This layer completes the data transmission with other nodes by
discovering neighbor nodes, establishing communication links, and provide node
356
Y. Du et al.