Blockchain and Emerging Distributed Ledger Technologies for Decentralized Multi-robot Systems

• DOI: 10.1007/s43154-023-00101-3
• Publication Date: 2023-09-29T09:03:17Z
• Authors: Jorge Peña Queralta; Farhad Keramat; Salma Salimi; Lei Fu; Xianjia Yu; Tomi Westerlund
• Keywords: 0202 electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering; 02 engineering and technology

AbstractPurpose of Review:Distributed ledger technologies (DLTs), particularly blockchain, are paving the way to securing and managing distributed and large-scale systems of autonomous agents. We look into how these technologies are moving out of the lab and into the real world within the robotics field.Recent Findings:Despite the scalability and real-world applicability concerns, new solutions have emerged that show resilience to intermittent connectivity, as well as scalable solutions for managed or permissioned networks.Summary:We present a review on the various use cases that different DLTs can support in multi-robot systems. We argue that the majority of the work to date on open and permissionless blockchains is only applicable to a subset of robotics use cases, with novel DLT architectures and permissioned blockchains driving adoption across industrial and more mature application scenarios.