The Use of Blockchain Technology for Private Data Handling for Mobile Agents in Human-Technology Interaction

With the rising importance of automation and digitalization in the fields of logistics and production systems, society is facing new challenges when it comes to human-technology interaction and the authority over personal data management. This paper proposes a method to use individual-related data for process optimization and raise of acceptance of technology and at the same time keeping the data safe and giving the individual sovereignty over the use of its personal information. In this work a multi-agent system is used for the integration of humans in technical systems, where a special software agent keeps information about the dedicated human, like abilities and properties, and acts in favour of the human. To ensure the privacy of this data, the human can decide which data he wants to expose to the system to make it adapt to his needs. This allows the system to form socio-technical system consisting of humans and robot, where multi-robot systems, like a fleet of AGVs, can interact with the individual. Furthermore, blockchain technologies and databases are used to store the personal data after usage in a secure manner. The methods to safely share, store and transfer personal information in robotics and automation applications are described in the following.