A symposium that brings together scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, and key stakeholders to discuss the possibilities of blockchain technology in robotics.
GENERAL CHAIRS
Prof. Alex 'Sandy' Pentland
Prof. Marco Dorigo
Dr. Thomas Hardjono
PROGRAM CHAIRS
Dr. Eduardo Castelló Ferrer
Prof. Javier Alonso-Mora
Prof. Carlo Pinciroli
Prof. Amanda Prorok
Dr. Mauro Birattari
Dr. Ognjen Rudovic
ORGANIZERS
Dr. Eduardo Castelló Ferrer
Important Dates:
Early Submission:
Paper Submission Deadline:
September 30, 2018
Author Notification:
October 15, 2018
Camera ready submission:
October 30, 2018
Registration starts:
SEPTEMBER 1, 2018
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 such as autonomy, self-learning, knowledge sharing, can also raise concerns in the evolution of the technology from academic institutions to the public sphere. Blockchain, an emerging technology originated in the digital currency field, is starting to show 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 state-of-the art robotic systems with blockchain technology.
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.
prof. marco dorigo
Prof. Marco Dorigo directs IRIDIA, the AI lab of the Université Libre de Bruxelles. He is the inventor of the Ant Colony Optimization metaheuristic for discrete optimization problems and the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Swarm Intelligence.
Marco is a fellow of the AAAI, EurAI and IEEE and has received numerous scientific awards such as the IEEE Frank Rosenblatt Award, an ERC Advanced Grant, the Cajastur International Prize for Soft Computing “Mamdani Prize”, and the Marie Curie Excellence Award.
Dr. Thomas Hardjono
Dr. Thomas Hardjono is the Technical Director of MIT Connection Science and the MIT Trust::Data Consortium. Passionate about the Internet infrastructure, equitable access and open source, he devoted several years at MIT running the MIT Kerberos Consortium. Prior to this he was a Distinguished Engineer at Bay Networks, Principal Scientist at VeriSign PKI, and held CTO roles at several start-ups.
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. 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 and computer vision, and their applications to multi-modal human-robot interaction, health care, and personalized learning and secure data sharing.
Agenda
SESSION 1
Opening session – introductory talk (10 minutes)
Keynote lectures (3 * 20 minutes)
Presentation of SYMPOSIUM papers by authors (2 * 15 minutes)
START-UP DEMOS (2 * 30 MINUTES)
BREAK - NETWORKING
SESSION 2
Opening session – introductory talk (10 minutes)
Keynote lectures (3 * 20 minutes)
Presentation of SYMPOSIUM papers by authors (2 * 15 minutes)
START-UP DEMOS (2 * 30 MINUTES)
Organizers
MIT Media Lab
75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02139
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