Novel ways to develop robotics and AI infrastructures by seamlessly merging new financial and new deployment and operation methods

F. Bonsignorio

We can imagine and plan, thanks to the progress in IoT, Machine Learning and AI, a quick development of smart cities, smart (reverse) logistics and myriads of new connected applications of robotics, AI and in general smart systems. Although many cities around the world are already implementing smart city plans based on the cloud services of megaplatforms such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and the likes. it is likely that, as the number of smart devices increases exponentially, the centralised global hubs won’t be able to scale. Moreover the excessive centralisation of IT infrastructures will lead to reliability on the one hand and privacy and political issues on the other hand. The blockchain technology provides a distributed and scalable alternative.

The blockchains such as Ethereum allow, thanks to the ‘smart contracts’. new more effective no third man cheaper and sleeker financial instruments and procedures (for example, ICOs, Initial Coin Offerings, smart contracts themselves, etc.). A less exploited possibility enable by distributed ledger technology is the flexible disintermediated implementation of bond emission mechanisms.

The corporate bond system is a powerful development tool, especially for the new-born industries.

Bond emissions show a number of benefits:

• the issuer retains control over its own organization (the сreditor does not gain access to management)
• it allows the issuer to obtain significant amounts of funds in a fairly short period of time (from one year);
• servicing a bonded loan has lower financial costs associated compared to servicing bank loans or paying dividends;
• interest payments are usually charged to cost, which lowers the tax base;
• it reduced the risks for the entities supplying the financial resources
• managing well company bonds contribute to creating a favorable credit history and foster recognition of the company

In the past the corporate bonds have given a strong push to economic development, technological change and infrastructure improvement. An example is given by the rapid development of the American railroad industry in its early stage. The same approach can be used to develop the commercial robotics industry.

The blockchain technology allows much more adaptive and fine grained ways to issue the analogue of corporate bonds (certified and registered credit guaranteed by the company assets)

In particular it is possible to issue bonds backed by robotic labor (tokenization). The distributed ledger technology allows the bond securitization by the necessary registration of the robots and their labor, by the constant sending of their data to the network.

Take a look at the example of leasing aircraft engines and parts for aircrafts — Power-by-the-Hour approach with payment for the actual work. It needs a system that collects and sends data about the condition of aircraft: Engine Data Monitoring, Airplane Health Management by Boeing, Rolls-Royce’s jet engines maintenance.

However, the creation of such a network is a costly endeavour that only large players can afford. Savings could be made by using public networks. However, they are security issues that need to be addressed. This is where the niche for Robonomics lies. It provides a secure network infrastructure for the creation of a cheap industrial internet for robotic and AI devices.

It provides a set of fine grained financing tools based on smart contracts on a distributed and secure ledger.

We have an unprecedented cheap, flexible and scalable possibility to intertwin a very adaptive, robust and fine grained deployment and daily operation of robots and AIs for the smart society of the future with its own financing in a largely automated very fast and cheap way.

Market favors these developments because they create economical benefits — new profit and cost savings — to a large community of potential prosumers.

No doubts, there is a need for a novel suitable macroeconomic theory (on which a group of people including me is working) able to model and quantify (in a broad way) the benefits and shortcomings of different forms of economic organization involving ‘markets’ made by human, artificial agents and mixtures of the two.

Intuition, historical experience and some rough estimates justify our hopes.