RODEO: RObotic DEcentralized Organization

TL;DR

RODEO (RObotic DEcentralized Organization), a blockchain-based framework that integrates trust and accountability mechanisms for robots, formalizes Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) for service robots and provides a ROS-ETH bridge between the DAO and the robots.

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.

Figures (6)

• Figure 1: Illustration of the interaction between humans, robots, and organizations by using blockchain-based SCs and proof-verification mechanisms. The proposed framework is composed of: A) DAO bridge: an interface that gives organizations, humans, and robots a common tool to publish tasks and services, receive assignments, and manage rewards. B) Blockchain network: a platform that defines the rules of the operation of the organization, and C) Verification oracle: proof-verification entity for actions performed in the physical world
• Figure 2: Cleaning task scenario. The figure depicts the physical and cyber sections of this use case. The left section shows the physical space, where a mobile robot equipped with a robotic arm performs the waste collection sequence (steps 1–5) followed by the battery charging process (steps 6 and 7). The right section represents the cyber space, showing the deployment of smart contracts on the public Sepolia testnet and the operation of the verification oracle implemented on a local server connected to the Web3 interface.
• Figure 3: Sequence diagram of the on-chain workflow across ServiceManager.sol, TaskManager.sol, Organization.sol, and the proof-verification oracle.
• Figure 4: Completion times (in minutes) for task and proof creation. Bar plots show the median completion times for the cleaning (blue) and charging (green) tasks. Light colors show the median time of proof creation after the corresponding task was completed.
• Figure 5: Balance of the robot's wallet (in IEC) from September $10^{th}$-$12^{th}$ 2025. In the figure, green diamonds represent transactions from the organization to the robot as reward for successful execution of the cleaning task. Red diamonds represent the purchase of electricity for battery charging. Finally, the blue line represents the electricity price in €/kWh for the duration of the experiment.