Robot-Human Agreements and Financial Transactions Enabled by a Blockchain and Smart Contracts

Abstract

This paper explores the design of a robot and interaction model that enables a robot to engage in human-like financial transactions, and to enter into agreements with a human counterpart. More explicitly, (1) we bestow the agent with a cryptocurrency wallet and (2) define bilateral and multilateral agreements that can be automated as smart contracts in a distributed ledger. As a use case of a robot with such features, we describe roBU - a traveling robot, that can enter into financial agreements in exchange for assistance in traveling the world. With this effort, we expect to validate the idea of near-future scenarios where autonomous or semi-autonomous agents are endowed with, a type of, social autonomy and the ability to engage in financial transactions. We believe the latter can improve task completion and enable further exploration of robot-human relationships, dependencies and trust.