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. 2020 Oct 26:9:44173-44197.
doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3032450. eCollection 2021.

Blockchain-Empowered Multi-Robot Collaboration to Fight COVID-19 and Future Pandemics

S H Alsamhi  1   2 , Brian Lee  1
Affiliations

Blockchain-Empowered Multi-Robot Collaboration to Fight COVID-19 and Future Pandemics

S H Alsamhi et al. IEEE Access. .

Abstract

This conceptual paper overviews how blockchain technology is involving the operation of multi-robot collaboration for combating COVID-19 and future pandemics. Robots are a promising technology for providing many tasks such as spraying, disinfection, cleaning, treating, detecting high body temperature/mask absence, and delivering goods and medical supplies experiencing an epidemic COVID-19. For combating COVID-19, many heterogeneous and homogenous robots are required to perform different tasks for supporting different purposes in the quarantine area. Managmnt and decentralizing multi-robot play a vital role in combating COVID-19 by reducing human interaction, monitoring, delivering goods. Blockchain technology can manage multi-robot collaboration in a decentralized fashion, improve the interaction among them to exchange information, share representation, share goals, and trust. We highlight the challenges and provide the tactical solutions enabled by integrating blockchain and multi-robot collaboration to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. The proposed conceptual framework can increase the intelligence, decentralization, and autonomous operations of connected multi-robot collaboration in the blockchain network. We overview blockchain potential benefits to defining a framework of multi-robot collaboration applications to combat COVID-19 epidemics such as monitoring and outdoor and hospital End to End (E2E) delivery systems. Furthermore, we discuss the challenges and opportunities of integrated blockchain, multi-robot collaboration, and the Internet of Things (IoT) for combating COVID-19 and future pandemics.

Keywords: Blockchain; COVID-19; E2E delivery system; decentralization; infectious diseases; multi-robot collaboration; pandemic; quarantine; smart healthcare.

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Figures

FIGURE 1.
FIGURE 1.
Blockchain solutions for improving multi-robot collaboration to combat COVID-19.
FIGURE 2.
FIGURE 2.
Paper structure.
FIGURE 3.
FIGURE 3.
Multi-robot collaboration concept.
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FIGURE 4.
Robots categories for combating COVID-19.
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Blockchain types and features.
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FIGURE 6.
Blockchain for multi-robot collaboration.
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FIGURE 7.
Robot access all robots state in blockchain.
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FIGURE 8.
RobotChain communication architecture and operation.
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FIGURE 9.
Multi-robot control for combating COVID-19.
FIGURE 10.
FIGURE 10.
Consensus algorithm with sharding technique in blockchain for multi drone.
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FIGURE 11.
Consensus algorithms benefit and applications.
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FIGURE 12.
The architecture of multi-drone collaboration for high body temperature and mask absence.
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FIGURE 13.
Algorithm of monitoring multi-robot collaboration to combat COVID-19.
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FIGURE 14.
Delivery of food and medicine in blockchain envisioned robots networks.
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FIGURE 15.
Algorithm of multi-robot collaboration for quarantine E2E delivery system.
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FIGURE 16.
Multi-robot collaboration to combat COVID-19 in hospital.
FIGURE 17.
FIGURE 17.
Algorithm of multi-robot collaboration for hospital E2E delivery system.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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