Draft:Eduardo Castello Ferrer
Spanish roboticist and computer scientist
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Eduardo Castelló Ferrer (Spanish pronunciation: [eˈðwaɾðo kasteˈʎo feˈrer]) is a Spanish computer scientist and roboticist working on robotics, artificial intelligence, and cyber-physical systems. His research joins swarm robotics and complex systems with cryptography and distributed ledger technologies, and addresses how autonomous robots can operate within decentralized organisations and economic infrastructures.
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Blockchain-based robotics
Economically autonomous robots
Eduardo Castelló Ferrer | |
|---|---|
 Castelló Ferrer during a live demonstration | |
| Born | |
| Education | University of Portsmouth Osaka University MIT Media Lab |
| Known for | Swarm robotics Blockchain-based robotics Economically autonomous robots |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Robotics Artificial intelligence Cyber-physical systems |
| Workplaces | IE University Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Thesis | Adaptive Foraging for Swarm Robotic Systems: A Bio-Inspired Approach (2016) |
| Hiroshi Ishiguro | |
| Website | castello |
His 2016 paper The Blockchain: A New Framework for Robotic Swarm Systems has been described in the literature as the first work to examine the use of blockchain technology in swarm robotics.[1][2] Castelló Ferrer has held research positions at Osaka University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the Université libre de Bruxelles. He is an assistant professor of robotics at IE University, where he leads the CyPhy Life research group.[3][4]
Education
Castelló Ferrer received a Bachelor of Science in intelligent systems from the University of Portsmouth.[4] He then studied robotics engineering at Osaka University, completing a Master of Engineering and a PhD in the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory[5] under the guidance of Hiroshi Ishiguro.[6] His master's research applied stochastic, bio-inspired control methods to multi-robot task allocation. His doctoral work extended this to swarm robotics, developing an adaptive response-threshold model for decentralized division of labour in robot swarms, presented in the thesis Adaptive Foraging for Swarm Robotic Systems: A Bio-Inspired Approach (2016).[7]
Career
From 2017 to 2020, Castelló Ferrer held a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship from the European Commission for the project BROS (Blockchain: a new framework for swarm RObotic Systems). He spent the outgoing phase as a postdoctoral researcher in the Human Dynamics[8] group at the MIT Media Lab, led by Alex "Sandy" Pentland, and the return phase at the IRIDIA laboratory of the Université libre de Bruxelles under Marco Dorigo.[9][10]
Since 2019 he has been a research fellow at MIT Connection Science, an MIT-wide research initiative.[11]
In 2023 he joined IE University as an assistant professor of robotics, where he leads Cyber-Physical Life, a research group working on robotics, artificial intelligence, cyber-physical systems, and human–computer interaction.[3][12]
Research
Castelló Ferrer's research examines coordination, trust, and decision-making in autonomous robotic systems, with an emphasis on swarm robotics, complex systems, and distributed autonomous infrastructures.
Blockchain and swarm robotics
The Blockchain: A New Framework for Robotic Swarm Systems (2016) proposed applying distributed ledger technologies and cryptography to robot swarms, identifying security, decision-making, behavioural differentiation, and business models as problems the approach could address.[13] Later reviews describe it as the first account of blockchain use cases in swarm robotics, including secure communication, data logging, and consensus agreement, and it prompted a line of follow-on work by other groups.[1][2] The paper received coverage in the technology press.[14]
The BROS project extended this into mechanisms for achieving security and data integrity in swarm robotic systems.[15] That work led to studies of secure cooperation in swarms published in Science Robotics,[16] which introduced protocols allowing robots to prove statements about their own behaviour without revealing private information,[17] and in IEEE Transactions on Robotics, on maintaining reliable coordination in multi-robot systems that contain faulty or adversarial agents (i.e., Byzantine robots).[18]
Economically autonomous robots
A second line of work investigates how decentralized robotic organizations can extend robots' operational autonomy, enabling machines to earn, spend, and reinvest resources on their own behalf. Gaka-chu, an autonomous robotic painter, explored this model through a six-month deployment in which the robot produced and sold paintings using blockchain-based auctions and invested the proceeds in its own sustainability.[19] RODEO (RObotic DEcentralized Organization) extends this approach into a framework in which robots can accept tasks, submit cryptographic proofs of completion, receive compensation automatically through blockchain-based smart contracts, and allocate resources toward their continued operation.[20] The work has been discussed in the press in the context of machine labour and taxation.[21][22]
Cyber-physical systems
Through CyPhy Life, Castelló Ferrer's group studies the relationship between digital and physical systems, spanning embodied artificial intelligence, decentralized systems, and the design of new cyber-physical institutions.[3][12]
Awards and honours
- Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship for the BROS project (2017).[15]
- Ramón y Cajal research fellowship (2023), Spanish State Research Agency.[23]
- Leonardo Grant for Researchers and Cultural Creators (2024), Fundación BBVA.[24]
Public engagement
Selected publications
- Castelló Ferrer, E. (2016). "The Blockchain: A New Framework for Robotic Swarm Systems". arXiv:1608.00695. Later published in Proceedings of the Future Technologies Conference (FTC) 2018, Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol. 881 (2019), pp. 1037–1058. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-02683-7_77
- Castelló Ferrer, E.; Hardjono, T.; Pentland, A.; Dorigo, M. (2021). "Secure and secret cooperation in robot swarms". Science Robotics, 6(56), eabf1538. doi:10.1126/scirobotics.abf1538
- Castelló Ferrer, E.; Jiménez, E.; Lopez-Presa, J. L.; Martín-Rueda, J. (2022). "Following Leaders in Byzantine Multirobot Systems by Using Blockchain Technology". IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 38(2), 1101–1117. doi:10.1109/TRO.2021.3104243
- Castelló Ferrer, E.; Berman, I.; Kapitonov, A.; Manaenko, V.; Chernyaev, M.; Tarasov, P. (2023). "Gaka-chu: A Self-Employed Autonomous Robot Artist". 2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pp. 11583–11589. doi:10.1109/ICRA48891.2023.10160866
- Groshev, M.; Castelló Ferrer, E. (2026). "RODEO: RObotic DEcentralized Organization". arXiv:2603.06058