RODEO: RObotic DEcentralized Organization

TL;DR

RODEO introduces a blockchain-based framework for service robots, enabling auditable actions, transparent decision-making, and autonomous organization, demonstrated through a trash-collecting robot that earned and reinvested tokens for extended operation.

Contribution

This paper formalizes decentralized autonomous organizations for robots, providing a ROS-ETH bridge, templates for integration, and proof-verification mechanisms for auditable robot actions.

Findings

Robot doubled its income in three days.

Proof validation times were approximately one minute.

Robot's income funded up to 88 hours of future operation.

Abstract

Robots are improving their autonomy with minimal human supervision. However, auditable actions, transparent decision processes, and new human-robot interaction models are still missing requirements to achieve extended robot autonomy. To tackle these challenges, we propose RODEO (RObotic DEcentralized Organization), a blockchain-based framework that integrates trust and accountability mechanisms for robots. This paper formalizes Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) for service robots. First, it provides a ROS-ETH bridge between the DAO and the robots. Second, it offers templates that enable organizations (e.g., companies, universities) to integrate service robots into their operations. Third, it provides proof-verification mechanisms that allow robot actions to be auditable. In our experimental setup, a mobile robot was deployed as a trash collector in a lab scenario. The robot collects trash and uses a smart bin to sort and dispose of it correctly. Then, the robot submits a proof of the successful operation and is compensated in DAO tokens. Finally, the robot re-invests the acquired funds to purchase battery charging services. Data collected in a three day experiment show that the robot doubled its income and reinvested funds to extend its operating time. The proof validation times of approximately one minute ensured verifiable task execution, while the accumulated robot income successfully funded up to 88 hours of future autonomous operation. The results of this research give insights about how robots and organizations can coordinate tasks and payments with auditable execution proofs and on-chain settlement.