Abstract: An example system and method that can provide integrity and privacy-preserving communication and integrated operation in smart factory and other IOT applications using smart contracts in blockchain and Merkle Tree-based key management operations. The exemplary Merkle tree-based key management can ensure all communication, control operations, and shared models (e.g., Federated Learning models) are encrypted prior to transmission and sharing with other nodes in the network, with keys being split into parts to each of multiple recipients and later assembled to allow blocking consensus/validation to be performed.

Abstract: A system and methods for operating a multi-robot system (MRS) are disclosed. An example method can include receiving at least one transportation task; determining an optimal path for executing the at least one transportation task based at least in part on: (i) one or more transportation task parameters, (ii) a shared global critic function accessible to the first robot and the at least one additional robot, and (iii) a local critic function unique to the first robot; and executing the at least one transportation task in accordance with the determined optimal path.

Abstract: A system and methods for operating a multi-robot system (MRS) are disclosed. In some aspects, each robot of the MRS can: determine a local system regret state belief based on local evidence obtained by the robot itself and social evidence provided by other robots in a social community, determine a local system drift state belief based on the local system regret state belief, determine a next action based on the based on the local system regret state belief and the local system drift state belief, and execute the next action. Local system regret state belief is generally an estimation of a system regret state for the MRS. Local system drift state belief is generally an estimate of a system drift state for the MRS.

Abstract: Task assignment for multi-robot systems (MRSs) in a smart factory (Industry 4.0) is described. Aspects are directed to a hypergraph based MRS and production model facilitating the cooperation among robots and serving frequent reconfiguration desired in Industry 4.0. Aspects are directed to a time complexity friendly search algorithm for real-time application using a hypergraph model to get task assignment(s). Parameters are provided for a tradeoff between solution optimality and time complexity. In an implementation, a system comprises a MRS comprising robots, wherein the MRS is configured to perform a manufacturing task, and a computing device configure to perform a multi-robot task allocation (MRTA) for the MRS. In an implementation, a method comprises generating task assignments, using MRTA, for robots of a MRS comprising the robots, wherein the MRS is configured to perform a manufacturing task, and providing the task assignments to the MRS.