Blockchain technology for the robotics domain: current challenges
Automation
Use Cases
Blockchain and cross-domain interaction
The fellowship contributed to the envisioned long-term impact to obtain a standard based on blockchain technology to robotics, within IEEE RAS standards.
The scope of the activity was related to the multi robot scenario for the robotics and autonomous systems domain. This is justified because it is very important to formally define concepts that comprise, e.g., interactions, communications, reasoning, for robots, teams of robots and autonomous systems. Those concepts were identified in this fellowship and constitute a first step to standardise blockchain and robotics common frameworks.
Using the proper vocabulary (concepts and definitions) enables the joint work of robots, autonomous systems, industry 4.0 and 5.0 devices, healthcare devices and the needed artificial intelligence applications that run on and for them, using blockchain technology. The later will then validate interactions, knowledge representation and reasoning in any application scenario, e.g., in industry and healthcare, while having the humans in the loop. This is key to positively impact interoperability of such systems, which is aligned with European interests.
IEEE Standard Ontologies for Robotics and Automation (IEEE Std 1872-2015); IEEE Std 1872.2-2021 Autonomous Robotics (AuR) Ontology
Blockchain technology for multi robot scenarios: sharing ontology based knowledge and reasoning.
The expected impact of the fellowship is to jointly work with multiple autonomous robots, IOT devices, and the needed artificial intelligence applications that run on and for them, using blockchain technology to validate interactions, knowledge representation and reasoning in any application scenario, e.g., in industry and healthcare, while having the humans in the loop.
The log-term impact will be significant due to the inclusion within the IEEE RAS standards collection of the blockchain technology, in future standards development, e.g., IEEE P1872.3. This will be done leveraging previous IEEE Std 1872-2015, IEEE Std 1872.2-2021 and the ethics related IEEE Std 7007-2021. The proposed activity will develop the basis of a common blockchain technology, that includes the existing standards knowledge and the proposed work for 1872.3 WG. Moreover, will enhance the performance of future generations of autonomous systems, e.g., robots and other artificial agents in any industrial or healthcare scenario.
ERC-20 standard ; IEEE Standard Ontologies for Robotics and Automation (IEEE Std 1872-2015) ; IEEE Std 1872.2-2021 Autonomous Robotics (AuR) Ontology.
Bio
Professor Sequeira Gonçalves (PhD) is with the Department of Electrotechnical and Industrial Engineering, Polytechnical University of Castelo Branco (IPCB), Castelo Branco, Portugal. He is a Senior Researcher with the Institute of Mechanical Engineering, University of Lisbon. He is responsible for the Robotics and Intelligent Equipment Laboratory of IPCB. His main research interests include ontologies, computational intelligence, robotics, industrial automation, computer vision, and in particular visual servo control of robots. He is the author or coauthor of over 150 journal articles, books, book chapters, and conference articles across the various domains described above.
He received the “Scientific Merit Award” from IPCB in 2017 and 2022, for his merits. He is currently serving as the Vice-Chair of the IEEE RAS Portuguese Chapter. He also served as the chair of the IEEE Computational Intelligence, Portuguese Chapter. He is currently the Chair of the IEEE P1872.3 Standard for Ontology Reasoning on Multiple Robots, and was an Officer of the working groups who worked toward IEEE RAS related standards, P1872, P1872.2 and P7007. IEEE standards (1872 and 7007) received the IEEE SA “Emerging Technology Award” in 2015 and 2021. He is an Active Member of the IEEE Standards Association and IEEE Robotics and Automation Society.
Quote
The fellowship contributed to the envisioned long-term impact to obtain a standard based on blockchain technology to obtain, e.g., validated environment information obtained from multiple robots, validated reasoning, within IEEE RAS standards and others developed worldwide.
Title & Organisation Name: Professor, Polytechcnic University of Castel Branco
Country: Portugal
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