LLM2Swarm: Robot Swarms that Responsively Reason, Plan, and Collaborate through LLMs

Robot swarms are composed of many simple robots that communicate and collaborate to fulfill complex tasks. Robot controllers usually need to be specified by experts on a case-by-case basis via programming code. This process is time-consuming, prone to errors, and unable to take into account all situations that may be encountered during deployment. On the other hand, recent Large Language Models (LLMs) have demonstrated reasoning and planning capabilities, introduced new ways to interact with and program machines, and represent domain and commonsense knowledge. Hence, we propose to address the aforementioned challenges by integrating LLMs with robot swarms and show the potential in proofs of concept (showcases). For this integration, we explore two approaches. The first approach is 'indirect integration,' where LLMs are used to synthesize and validate the robot controllers. This approach may reduce development time and human error before deployment. Moreover, during deployment, it could be used for on-the-fly creation of new robot behaviors. The second approach is 'direct integration,' where each robot locally executes a separate LLM instance during deployment for robot-robot collaboration and human-swarm interaction. These local LLM instances enable each robot to reason, plan, and collaborate using natural language. To enable further research on our mainly conceptual contribution, we release the software and videos for our LLM2Swarm system: https://github.com/Pold87/LLM2Swarm.

Securing Federated Learning in Robot Swarms using Blockchain Technology

Federated learning is a new approach to distributed machine learning that offers potential advantages such as reducing communication requirements and distributing the costs of training algorithms. Therefore, it could hold great promise in swarm robotics applications. However, federated learning usually requires a centralized server for the aggregation of the models. In this paper, we present a proof-of-concept implementation of federated learning in a robot swarm that does not compromise decentralization. To do so, we use blockchain technology to enable our robot swarm to securely synchronize a shared model that is the aggregation of the individual models without relying on a central server. We then show that introducing a single malfunctioning robot can, however, heavily disrupt the training process. To prevent such situations, we devise protection mechanisms that are implemented through secure and tamper-proof blockchain smart contracts. Our experiments are conducted in ARGoS, a physics-based simulator for swarm robotics, using the Ethereum blockchain protocol which is executed by each simulated robot.

Toychain: A Simple Blockchain for Research in Swarm Robotics

This technical report describes the implementation of Toychain: a simple, lightweight blockchain implemented in Python, designed for ease of deployment and practicality in robotics research. It can be integrated with various software and simulation tools used in robotics (we have integrated it with ARGoS, Gazebo, and ROS2), and also be deployed on real robots capable of Wi-Fi communications. The Toychain package supports the deployment of smart contracts written in Python (computer programs that can be executed by and synchronized across a distributed network). The nodes in the blockchain can execute smart contract functions by broadcasting transactions, which update the state of the blockchain upon agreement by all other nodes. The conditions for this agreement are established by a consensus protocol. The Toychain package allows for custom implementations of the consensus protocol, which can be useful for research or meeting specific application requirements. Currently, Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Authority are implemented.