Robot Operating System (ROS) has received widespread utilization with the development of robotics, self-driving, etc., recently. Meanwhile, the other technology blockchain is frequently applied to various fields with its trustworthy characteristics and immutability in data storage. However, ROS has no ability to interact with the blockchain, which hinders research in related fields. Therefore, we wonder if we can develop a convenient tool to bridge ROS and blockchain. Inspired by this, we propose ROS-Ethereum. It bridges ROS and Ethereum, a widely used blockchain platform. ROS-Ethereum is based on the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) communication mechanism and the SM algorithm family along with Ethereum technology. Simply put, ROS-Ethereum allows users to invoke the contract when interacting with the blockchain, which makes this process easier and safer. We conduct experiments in real robots to verify the effectiveness of ROS-Ethereum and evaluate it from the following metrics: (1) the encryption efficiency and stability of the algorithm and (2) ROS-Ethereum transaction response time and packet loss rate.

Robot Operating System (ROS) has brought great potential for automation in all fields involved in production activities, which greatly improves productivity and simplifies operations that belonged to humans originally. However, ROS is highly dependent on communication but lacks secure data sharing mechanisms. Therefore, when it comes to multi-robots interaction scenarios, there are severe challenges in ensuring the safe and trustworthy exchange of specified confidential data among multi-robots. The reliability of data also needs to be considered carefully. This paper proposes a solution to this problem based on blockchain technology. We present a general secure and convenient authorization framework named AuthROS for ROS nodes with absolute security and high availability based on private Ethereum network and SM algorithms. This framework is capable of meeting the requirements for immutability and security of confidential data exchange in nodes of ROS of any size. An authority granting and identity identifying mechanism is proposed and integrated into the Ethereum smart contract to execute atomically to ensure the trustworthiness exchange of data and no third-party participation. At the same time, a key exchange based on SM2 and plaintext encryption mechanism based on SM4 is proposed to ensure the data transmission security. Furthermore, a data digest uploading scheme is adopted to improve the efficiency of querying and data uploading to the Ethereum network. Based on all of mechanisms mentioned above, AuthROS can play a role in the scenario where data transmitted among robots need to be recorded and maintain immobility. Experimental results demonstrated that AuthROS is equipped with excellent security, good time performance along with Nodes Forging resistance. We believe that AuthROS is the first secure data sharing framework for Robots loaded with ROS. We open sourced AuthROS at https://github.com/RobAI-Lab/ROS-Chain.

The Robot Operating System (ROS) streamlines human processes, increasing the efficiency of various production tasks. However, the security of data transfer operations in ROS is still in its immaturity. Securing data exchange between several robots is a significant problem. This paper proposes \textit{AuthROS}, an Ethereum blockchain-based secure data sharing method, for robot communication. It is a ROS node authorization system capable of ensuring the immutability and security of private data flow between ROS nodes of any size. To ensure data security, AuthROS employs the smart contract for permission granting and identification, SM2-based key exchange, and SM4-based plaintext encryption techniques. In addition, we deploy a data digest upload technique to optimize data query and upload performance. Finally, the experimental findings reveal that AuthROS has strong security, time performance, and node forging in cases where data should be recorded and robots need to remain immobile.