Call for Papers

Robotic systems are starting to revolutionize many applications, from transportation to health care assisted by technological advancements, such as cloud computing, novel hardware design, and novel manufacturing techniques. However, several of the characteristics that make robots ideal for certain future applications --- autonomy, learning, knowledge sharing, etc. --- can also raise concerns in the evolution of the technology from academic institutions to the public sphere. For instance, controlling the behavior of large teams of robots still presents unique challenges for human operators. In addition, important issues in the fields of data privacy, security and transparency can become burdens for the future use of this technology in high-sensitive scenarios. Therefore, solutions to these issues might be necessary steps towards mainstream adoption.

Blockchain, an emerging technology originated in the digital currency field, demonstrates that by combining peer-to-peer networks with cryptographic algorithms, agents can reach agreements in a transparent manner without the need for a controlling authority. For instance, blockchain-based tools such as "smart contracts" are already showing great potential to make robotic operations more secure, autonomous, flexible and even profitable. Therefore, bridging the gap between purely scientific domains and real-world applications

This symposium seeks to move beyond the classical view of robotic systems to advance our understanding about the possibilities and limitations of combining robots with blockchain technology. Insights about the following questions are especially important: What blockchain tools are available to increase the reliability and transparency of robotic systems? What kind of algorithms are suitable to combine both technologies? Are there new models and methods to connect robots to blockchain-based technology such as "smart contracts"? Are distributed networks such as Bitcoin a feasible way to integrate robotic systems in our society? Are there new business models for robot ventures based on cryptographic algorithms?

Below is a list of possible topics that would fit this symposium:

• Privacy and security for robotic systems

• Autonomous cyber-physical systems

• Blockchain for networked systems and IoT

• Peer-to-peer and distributed models for robotic systems

• Self-regulated robotic systems

• Distributed sensing and coordination

• Blockchain and mobile systems

• Blockchain for multi-agent systems

• Citizen science

• New decentralized business models

In addition to this brief list of possible topics, we welcome submissions on other topics addressing robotic systems in the society. We seek manuscripts with conceptual and theoretical contributions as well as papers documenting valuable results of experiments conducted with real-robots. We welcome research reviews that provide a comprehensive view of any of the fields mentioned previously. Papers must be edited using the LNCS format and submitted electronically as PDF files via EasyChair here:

Speakers

Prof. alex ('sandy') Pentland

Professor Alex ('Sandy') Pentland directs the MIT Connection Science and Human Dynamics labs and previously helped create and direct the MIT Media Lab and the Media Lab Asia in India. He is one of the most-cited scientists in the world, and Forbes recently declared him one of the "7 most powerful data scientists in the world" along with Google founders and the Chief Technical Officer of the United States. He has received numerous awards and prizes such as the McKinsey Award from Harvard Business Review, the 40th Anniversary of the Internet from DARPA, and the Brandeis Award for work in privacy.

Neha NARULA

Neha Narula is the Director of the Digital Currency Initiative, a part of the MIT Media Lab focusing on cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. While completing a PhD in computer science at MIT, she built fast, scalable distributed systems and databases. She is a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Futures Council on Blockchain and has given a TED talk on the Future of Money. In a previous life, Neha helped relaunch the news aggregator Digg and was a senior software engineer at Google. There, she designed Blobstore, a system for storing and serving petabytes of immutable data.

PROF. Stephanie GIL

Prof. Stephanie Gil is an Assistant Professor at the Arizona State University.  Prior, she was a research scientist in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) at MIT under the supervision of Prof. Daniela Rus. Prof. Gil’s current research interests are in multi-robot control, consensus and distributed optimization of robot communication networks, cybersecurity for multi-robot teams, accurate indoor positioning, and communication for human-robot collaboration among others

PROF. Alexander Kapitonov

Alexander Kapitonov is an Associate Professor and Chief Research Associate at ITMO University Faculty of Control Systems and Robotics, as well as a Research Associate at Adaptive and Nonlinear Control Systems Lab.

Dr. eduardo castello

Dr. Eduardo Castello is a Marie Curie Fellow in the Human Dynamics Group at the MIT Media Lab.  He is working with Prof. Alex ('Sandy') Pentland and Prof. Marco Dorigo in order to explore the combination of swarm robotic systems and blockchain technology to implement new security, behavior and business models for distributed robotic systems.  Eduardo  received his B.Sc.(Hons) Intelligent Systems from Portsmouth University (UK) and his M.Eng. and Ph.D. degrees in Robotics Engineering from Osaka University (Japan).

DR. THOMAS HARDJONO

Dr. Hardjono leads technical projects and initiatives around identity, security and privacy in emerging technologies such as IoT, smart contracts and blockchain systems, and engages industry partners and sponsors on these fronts.

dr. Ognjen ('Oggi') Rudovic

Dr. Ognjen ('Oggi') Rudovic is a Marie Curie Fellow in the Affective Computing Group at MIT Media Lab, working on machine learning for the new generation of affective robots. He has extensive experience in Automatic Control Theory, Computer Vision, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. His current research interests are in machine learning, artificial intelligence and computer vision, and their applications to multi-modal human-robot interaction, health care and well-being, personalized learning, and secure data sharing.

Alin dragos

Mr. Dragos is the Head of Strategic Partnerships at the Digital Currency Initiative (DCI) at the MIT Media Lab. Mr. Dragos is one of the key members behind the lightweight Lightning Network software developed at the Media Lab.

Agenda

SESSION 1 (9:00 - 12:00)

9:00 - 9:30 - Welcome and introduction (Eduardo Castello)

Keynotes

• 9:30 - 10:00 - Alex ‘Sandy’ Pentland

• 10:00 - 10:30 - Ognjen Rudovic

• 10:30 - 11:00 - Thomas Hardjono

• 11:00 - 11:30 - Stepahine Gil

• 11:30 - 12:00 - Alexander Kapitonov

LUNCH BREAK (12:00 - 1:00)

SESSION 2 (1:00 - 5:00)

Paper Presentations

• 1:00 - 1:15 - Sara Falcone & John Zhang

  • Blockchain-based Protocol for Embedded Systems

• 1:15 - 1:30 - Renita Murimi

  • A Blockchain-enhanced framework for social networking sites

• 1.30 - 1:45 - Aswin Karthik Ramachandran Venkatapathy

  • Decentralized Context Broker using Byzantine Fault Tolerant Consensus

• 1:45 - 2:00 - Alex Khawalid

  • Grex: A decentralized hive mind

2:00 - 2:15 - Coffee Break

• 2:15 - 2:30 - Vasco Ferrinho Lopes

  • An Overview of Blockchain Integration with Robotics and Artificial Intelligence

• 2:30 - 2:45 - Jason A. Tran

  • SwarmDAG: A Partition Tolerant Distributed Ledger Protocol for Swarm Robotics

• 2:45 - 3:00 - Vitaly Bulatov

  • Robotic Services for New Paradigm Smart Cities Based on Decentralized Technologies

• 3:00 - 3:15 - Miguel Fernandes

  • Robotchain: Using Tezos Technology for Robot Event Management

3:15 - 3:30 - Coffee Break

Panel Discussion

• 3:30 - 4:00 Alin Dragos

• 4:00 - 5:00 Neha Narula + Thomas Hardjono + Eduardo Castello

Organizers

MIT Media Lab

75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02139

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