RoboStake: Pioneering Cooperative Navigation with a Novel Blockchain-Powered Proof-of-Stake in Robotic Teams

Abstract

This work examines the innovative combination of blockchain techniques with Wide Area Visual Navigation (WAVN) to tackle visual navigation issues in a diverse group of mobile robots used in unstructured sectors like agriculture and forestry. It focuses on addressing GPS reliance, adapting to environmental shifts, and reducing computational burdens by integrating RoboStake, a novel blockchain Proof of Stake (PoS) mechanism into the WAVN system. This solution seeks to bolster cooperative navigation by assessing the reliability of each robot's navigational input. With methods including a stake weight function, a PoS consensus score, and a navigability function, this strategy confronts the computational hurdles of coordinating robots and verifying data. Lastly, we showcase how the proposed approach upholds critical navigability features of the WAVN system and present results from scalable simulation experiments to highlight the improved efficiency achieved through enhanced cooperation.