AgentBlock: Infrastructure for Integrating Blockchain and Multi-Agent Robotic Systems for Optimising Industrial Production and Logistics

Abstract

This paper presents AgentBlock, an innovative infrastructure that fuses multi-agent robotic systems with blockchain technology to improve industrial production platforms. The research proposes a three-layer architecture that includes ROS-based robotic agents, a blockchain network in Ethereum with smart contracts in Solidity, and an intermediate layer for decentralised management of industrial operations. The prototype was validated using KUKA youBot and UFactory Lite 6 collaborative robots, leveraging the processing power of the NVIDIA Orin board for the execution of distributed control and consensus algorithms. The implementation was carried out in a Linux environment, using Gazebo for simulation, Python R-VIZ for real-time data visualization and Visual Studio as development environment. Experimental results show significant improvements compared to conventional systems, highlighting a reduction in latency and an increase in processing capacity. The proposed architecture proved to be scalable up to 4 operations per second, maintaining a 95.58% success rate in task execution. In addition, the system implements specialized smart contracts for industrial process management, incorporating a modified Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism for real-time environments. Validation included use cases in collaborative manufacturing, exception management, production traceability and resource optimization, demonstrating the feasibility of blockchainrobotics integration in real industrial scenarios. The main contributions of this work include a modular layered architecture, optimized protocols for real-time communication and smart contracts for industrial automation. This study lays the foundation for future research in decentralised robotic production systems, with relevant implications for the development of Industry 4.0.