Swarm Robotics (SR) is a fast-growing field that studies the behavior of large, networked groups of autonomous agents. Due to its nature, SR represents an ideal framework—a swiss knife—to design, model, and experiment with a wide range of networks (e.g., vehicular, aerial, cyber-physical, mobile, social, IoT). By using robots as an abstraction of network entities, novel architectures and protocols can be studied, for instance, in networks where the behavior of counterparts is not taken for granted. In this regard, novel cryptographic methods can be combined with networks of agents to provide new approaches to security standards (establishing cryptographic transactions as the basis for network traffic), consensus models (analyzing the trail of transactions for performance evaluation or threat detection), and data validation (maximizing knowledge and transparency without compromising privacy). This combination might even provide new economic possibilities by allowing networks to act as autonomous economic agents.

About Eduardo Castello

Dr. Eduardo Castello is a researcher specialized in swarm robotics systems and their interconnections with network technology. He has collaborated on international projects in Japan, Europe, and the United States, with world-class academics such as Prof. Alex (‘Sandy’) Pentland and Prof. Hiroshi Ishiguro. Dr. Castelló received the B.Sc. (Hons.) degree in intelligent systems from the University of Portsmouth (UK) in 2007, and the M.Eng. and Ph.D. degrees in robotics engineering from Osaka University (Japan) in 2011 and 2016, respectively. He is currently an affiliated researcher at MIT (USA), where he began as a postdoctoral fellow in 2016. He was a Marie Curie Fellow at the MIT Media Lab, where he worked to explore the combination of autonomous devices and blockchain-based technology. His work focuses on implementing new security, behavior, and business models for networked groups of autonomous agents by using novel cryptographic methods.

This event will be conducted in English