The Robonomics Framework

1. Intro

Robonomics project implements a software platform for human-to-machine / machine-to-machine technical && economic communication. Robonomics platform includes a set of open-source packages and infrastructure for Robotics, Smart Cities and Industry 4.0 developers.

Structure of Robonomics Framework followed.

• Robonomics Node - substrate-based blockchain node with Robonomics Network extensions.

• Robonomics CLI - console line primitives that make framework functions runnable.

• Robonomics IO - stream-oriented library with support general set of sensors and actuators (including virtual devices like PubSub or stdin/stdout) that makes hardware interaction easy.

• Robonomics Protocol - network library that provides primitives to build P2P communication for Industry 4.0 and Smart City cases.

• Robonomics Frame - a collection of pallets suitable for Smart City and Industry 4.0 cases.

2. Try it out

• Open Robonomics Portal.

When connection is success you can explore Robonomics Testnet and DAO IPCI chain.

• Accounts management: https://parachain.robonomics.network/#/accounts

• Looking for network events: https://parachain.robonomics.network/#/explorer

• Transfer test XRT: https://parachain.robonomics.network/#/transfer

• Send extrinsics to robonomics modules: https://parachain.robonomics.network/#/extrinsics

3. Documentation

• Robonomics wiki pages: https://wiki.robonomics.network

• Framework Documentation: https://crates.robonomics.network

4. Install node

Robonomics on Substrate binary blobs available as an assets in releases. Latest version you can try to build from source code.

4.1. Building from source

Ensure you have Rust and the support software installed:

curl https://sh.rustup.rs -sSf | sh
# on Windows download and run rustup-init.exe
# from https://rustup.rs instead

rustup update nightly
rustup target add wasm32-unknown-unknown --toolchain nightly
rustup update stable
cargo +nightly install --git https://github.com/alexcrichton/wasm-gc

You will also need to install the following packages:

• Linux:

  sudo apt install cmake git clang libclang-dev libudev-dev

• Mac:

  brew install cmake pkg-config git llvm

• Windows (PowerShell):

  # Install LLVM
  # Download and install the Pre Build Windows binaries
  # of LLVM  from http://releases.llvm.org/download.html

Install robonomics node from git source:

cargo install --force --git https://github.com/airalab/robonomics --tag v0.18.2 node-cli

Run node in Robonomics Testnet:

robonomics

Or run your local development network:

robonomics --dev

4.2. Building with Nix

Install Nix package manager:

curl https://nixos.org/nix/install | sh

Run in Nix shell:

git clone https://github.com/airalab/robonomics && cd robonomics
nix-shell --run "cargo run --release"

5. Network maintaining

Currently Robonomics on Substrate testnet is maintained by developers but anyone can support the project by several ways described below.

5.1. Full node

You can support the network just by launch the node. Every additional full node of blockchain helps it to be more sustainable and fault tolerant. Robonomics node binaries is available on releases or could be build from source.

5.2. Become a validator

For nodes that can be online 24/7 also available most important role on chain - block producers or briefly validator. Robonomics on Substrate use NPoS algorithm for choosing block production accounts. For this reason if you have any stake in testnet XRT then you can try self in block production.

1. Launch node and wait for synchronization.

   robonomics

2. Generate session keys during RPC call at Toolbox page:

   1. Submit RPC call author:rotateKeys() and copy result, it will be required later.

3. Restart node in validator mode.

   robonomics --validator

4. Generate accounts at Account page:

   1. create stash usign Schnorrkel (sr25519) crypto;

   2. create controller using Schnorrkel (sr25519) crypto.

5. Request testnet XRT in our Matrix room.

6. Transfer testnet XRT to stash and a little bit to controller account.

7. Staking actions:

   1. call New stake for stash and controller accounts;

   2. call Set Session Key for result account pair and paste session key given in step before;

   3. call Validate action.

8. Check Validator List, at new Era validator set will updated.

6. Robonomics I/O

Especially to make hardware interaction easy we introduce robonomics_io crate. This crate implements two kinds of devices: source - device that intended to read a data and sink - device that intended to write data. This approach suits the pipelines paradigm well and implemented in Robonomics CLI as io subcommand.

$ robonomics io
robonomics-io 0.18.0
Run I/O actions using Robonomics Framework.

USAGE:
    robonomics io [FLAGS] [OPTIONS] <SUBCOMMAND>

SUBCOMMANDS:
    help     Prints this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)
    read     Read information from device
    write    Write information into device

For example, the sentence that simple read value from Nova SDS011 sensor is followed.

$ robonomics io read sds011
{"timestamp":"1588090281","pm25":0.5,"pm10":1.5}

Is it also possible to combine IO actions to get something useful, like this:

$ robonomics io read sds011 | gz | robonomics io write pubsub my-sensor-data

The sentence above reads JSON values from a sensor, compresses it using gzip, and publishes it into my-sensor-data topic.

7. Robotics integration

Special feature ros helps to use Robonomics Substrate modules in ROS-enabled cyber-physical systems.

7.1. Building with ROS feature

1. Install ROS using instruction.

2. Import ROS environment:

   source /opt/ros/melodic/setup.bash

3. Build with ros feature:

   cargo build --release --features ros --bin robonomics

7.2. Launch ROS node

1. Start ROS core service

   roscore

2. Start node:

   cargo run --release --features ros

3. Subscribe for best block number:

   rostopic echo /blockchain/best_number