Blockchain Papers

Shimin Liu, Yuqian Lu, Jie Li, Xingwang Shen · 6 authors

No abstract is available for this record.

Taner Ascı, İhsan Toktaş

Blok Zincir teknolojisi, artık küçük bir köye dönüşen dünyada, başta sanat ve tasarım alanı olmak üzere etkisini hissettirmektedir. Geleceğin sanal evreninin tamamlayıcı bir parçası olacak olan NFT ise Blok Zincir teknolojisini kullanarak sanatçı ve tasarımcıları cesaretlendirmektedir. Endüstriyel tasarım alanı daha çok seri üretime konu olan ürünleri konu edinse de tasarım süreçleri sonunda ortaya çıkan dijital grafik tasarımların emsalsiz olma nitelikleriyle, bir düşünsel sürecin eseri olarak sanatsal boyuta sahip olmaları yadsınamaz. Dolayısıyla NFT piyasasında endüstriyel tasarım süreçleri ile elde edilen dijital unsurların sergilenebilmesi ve talep görmesi muhtemeldir. Bu çalışmada, endüstriyel tasarıma konu ürünlerin dijital örneklerinin Blok Zincir ve NFT teknolojileri yoluyla sanatsal alanda kullanım potansiyeli ile kripto piyasalarda alınıp satılarak işlem görmesi ve yeni nesil e-ticaretin beraberinde getirdiği yasal boşluklar incelenmektedir.

Yajing Wang, Yaodong Yang, Shuaipeng Suo, Mingyuan Wang · 5 authors

As three-dimensional (3D) printing technology is widely used, security issues have arisen, especially in the terminal parts of automobiles, aircraft, and 3D-printed military equipment. If the original design models or the STL (stereolithography) files are hacked or tampered, severe consequences can be anticipated. In this paper, we propose a demonstration to use a high-throughput blockchain to store the “fingerprints” of the 3D model and verify the “fingerprints” before printing to prevent illegal tampering. Relying on the tamper-resistant features of blockchain, the security of the model and the credibility of the terminal components can be ensured. The combination of blockchain and 3D printing will help people to build a trusted manufacturing environment and realize a more flexible manufacturing for future industry.

Yang Zhang, Yongquan Liang, Bin Jia, Pinxiang Wang

The blockchain-enabled cloud manufacturing is an emerging service-oriented paradigm, and the scheduling and process optimization for blockchain-enabled cloud manufacturing (SPO-BCMfg) are crucial to achieving the service-oriented goal. The blockchain-enabled cloud manufacturing paradigm improves the collaboration capabilities and information security over the ordinary cloud manufacturing while incorporating distributed storage, consensus mechanism, and cloud-edge collaboration. The above characteristics make SPO-BCMfg a multiobjective scheduling optimization problem. This article establishes the multiobjective SPO-BCMfg model based on a dynamic selection evolutionary algorithm to address the problem. First, we carry out the architecture and the modeling of the blockchain cloud manufacturing system. Then, a novel dynamic selection evolutionary algorithm is proposed, which is used to schedule and optimize the model for the process. In the stage of evolution, the algorithm uses a diversity-based population partitioning technique that utilizes the dynamic distance to realize the selection of elite solutions. The method was experimented on the SPO-BCMfg problem facing five and eight objectives. The experimental results show that the algorithm has a strong processing capacity in terms of convergence and diversity compared with the other advanced evolutionary algorithms.

B Kohl, M. Krüger, Tobias Dietl, Michael Lechner · 8 authors

Abstract Digitalization in the metal forming industry needs to be improved to achieve the goals set by Industrie 4.0. Distributed-Ledger-Technology (DLT) has been identified as a promising foundation for tackling the underlying problem of consistent information exchange. DLT-based solutions have already been developed, but none explicitly covers the roll forming use-case. This paper presents a Hyperledger-Fabric-based blockchain network to fill this research gap. This network is specifically designed for the roll forming industry, while still aiming to meet general information exchange requirements. The roll forming use-case is divided into the material supply chain and a design/simulation workflow. Participants and parameters in these two data transfer chains have been validated with the help of industry experts. Running the conceptualized network on an on-premise server has allowed for a detailed evaluation. Feedback provided by experts of the roll forming industry shows the potential of the presented network. Furthermore, the presented solution covers requirements often neglected by existing approaches like large data handling, compatibility to existing interfaces, secure communication, and access rights definition. In summary, this paper provides a pioneering implementation and evaluation of a DLT-based solution for the roll forming industry and, therefore, a foundation for the next steps towards Industrie 4.0.

Abhiram Haridas, Adil Abdul Samad, D Vysakh, K. Deepak Lawrence · 5 authors

Autonomous machine-to-machine interaction with minimal human interference is one of the defining features of cyber-physical systems that are expected to become ubiquitous as the manufacturing industry enters the fourth industrial revolution. Blockchain technology could emerge as a technology that underpins cyber-physical systems because of its various desirable characteristics. This paper describes the design and implementation details of two components of a blockchain-based data model for the additive manufacturing industry. A smart contract framework is proposed for the creation and execution of agreements between design companies and 3D printing companies. It facilitates the verification and automatic enforcement of these contracts. The framework incorporates a dedicated platform for the management of design files for intellectual property (IP) protection-related use cases. This helps to control the usage and distribution of IP, which is a crucial requirement for a data management solution for the industry. The proposed platforms have been implemented using the Ethereum software stack and its advantages and use cases have been explored.

Ryosuke Abe, Shigeya Suzuki, Kenji Saito, Hiroya Tanaka · 6 authors

Improvements in fabrication devices such as 3D printers are becoming possible for personal fabrication to freely fabricate any products. To clarify who is liable for the product, the fabricator should keep the fabrication history in an immutable and sustainably accessible manner. In this paper, we propose a new scheme, "Fabchain," that can record the fabrication history in such a manner. By utilizing a scheme that employs a blockchain as an audit-able communication channel, Fabchain manages print jobs for the fabricator's 3D printer over the blockchain, while maintaining a history of a print job. We implemented Fabchain on Ethereum and evaluated the performance for recording a print job. Our results demonstrate that Fabchain can complete communication of a print job sequence in less than 1 minute on the Ethereum test network. We conclude that Fabchain can manage a print job in a reasonable duration for 3D printing, while satisfying the requirements for immutability and sustainability.

Viktor Uglev, Kirill Zakharin

No abstract is available for this record.

Simone Casale-Brunet, Mirko Zichichi, Lee Hutchinson, Marco Mattavelli · 5 authors

This paper presents an analysis of the role of social media, specifically Twitter, in the context of non-fungible tokens, better known as NFTs. Such emerging technology framing the creation and exchange of digital object, started years ago with early projects such as "CryptoPunks" and since early 2021, has received an increasing interest by a community of people creating, buying, selling NFT's and by the media reporting to the general public. In this work it is shown how the landscape of one class of projects, specifically those used as social media profile pictures, has become mainstream with leading projects such as "Bored Ape Yacht Club", "Cool Cats" and "Doodles". This work illustrates how heterogeneous data was collected from the Ethereum blockchain and Twitter and then analysed using algorithms and state-of-art metrics related to graphs. The initial results show that from a social network perspective, the collections of most popular NFTs can be considered as a single community around NFTs. Thus, while each project has its own value and volume of exchange, on a social level all of them are primarily influenced by the evolution of values and trades of "Bored Ape Yacht Club" collection.

Xinlai Liu, Yishuo Jiang, Zicheng Wang, Ray Y. Zhong · 6 authors

The manufacturing industry is experiencing a service-oriented transformation in the digitalisation era. However, many small and middle enterprises (SMEs) still rely on traditional manufacturing patterns in which they can hardly servitise manufacturing resources due to the limited budget and poor digitalisation capability. To servitise manufacturing resources, this paper proposes unified five-layer blockchain-enabled secure digital twin platform architecture, followed by its core enabling components and technologies. Firstly, a service-oriented digital twinning model is developed to transform physical resources into digital services. Secondly, a rule-based off-chain matching mechanism is designed to bridge customers’ orders with manufacturing services. Thirdly, service-oriented architecture (SOA) is adopted as the major methodology to design and develop the whole blockchain platform. Four blockchain frontend services are developed using React.js, whilst the blockchain backend is developed using private Ethereum blockchain and InterPlanetary File System (IPFS). Finally, an experimental case is conducted based on the 3D printing scenario to verify the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed platform, named imseStudio. The results show that it not only provides an effective solution to digitalise manufacturing resources but also promotes the transformation towards service manufacturing.Highlights Blockchain-enabled secure digital twin platform is developed to servitise manufacturing resourcesService-oriented digital twinning model is developed to transform physical resources into digital servicesRule-based off-chain matching mechanism is built to bridge customers’ orders with 3D printerFour blockchain explorers are developed to facilitate 3D printing services

Turusha Ghimire, Atharva Joshi, Samgeeth Sen, Chinmay Kapruan · 6 authors

No abstract is available for this record.

Ming Li, Yelin Fu, Qiqi Chen, Ting Qu

Social manufacturing is conceptualised as a new type of networked manufacturing paradigm that supports the organisation of socialised manufacturing resources (SMRs) to satisfy the growth of personalised demands on crowd intelligence in a timely manner when co-creating open architecture products. The high participation of each stakeholder in this type of product production places a higher requirement on sufficient collaboration among social, cyber and physical spaces. However, under a decentralised social manufacturing network, the management of SMRs has encountered some real-life challenges in terms of their distributed and heterogeneous features. Hence, this paper proposes a blockchain-enabled digital twin collaboration platform (BcDTCP) as an integrated solution to address these challenges. A hybrid domain-driven design method is presented to design and implement business-knowledge driven systems. To address the heterogeneity of SMRs, a ubiquitous object structure is designed to flexibly adjust the functionality of the digital twin. Blockchain is introduced to construct a peer-to-peer network to organise the SMRs in a decentralised manner. Additionally, a timed coloured Petri net-based workflow is adopted to formulise the collaboration logic into a smart contract executed on the blockchain. Finally, a demonstrative case study is conducted to verify and evaluate the proposed BcDTCP under a 3D printing scenario.

Young Jai Choi

Recently, NFT (Non-Fungible Token) is emerging. It is applied in many areas especially in the digital art. In this article, the concept of NFT, its players in the market, minting and operations, applications, notable NFT artwork, and some controversial outstanding issues will be discussed.

Ralph Thiele

No abstract is available for this record.

Zhangyue Shi, Chen Kan, Wenmeng Tian, Chenang Liu

Abstract As an emerging technology, additive manufacturing (AM) is able to fabricate products with complex geometries using various materials. In particular, cyber-enabled AM systems have recently become widely applied in many real-world applications. It significantly improves the flexibility and productivity of AM but poses the system under high risks of cyber-physical attacks. For example, cyber-physical attack could maliciously tamper the product design and process parameters, which, in turn, leads to significant alteration of the desired properties in AM products. Therefore, there is an urgent need in incorporating advanced technologies to improve the cyber-physical security for the cyber-enabled AM systems. In this study, two common types of cyber-physical attacks regarding the G-code security were investigated, namely, unintended design modifications and intellectual property theft. To effectively secure the G-code against these two attacks, a new methodology is developed in this study, which consists of a novel blockchain-based data storage approach and an effective asymmetry encryption technique. The proposed method was also applied to a real-world AM case for ensuring the cyber-physical security of the face shield fabrication, which is critical during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on the proposed methodology, malicious tampering can be accurately detected in time, and meanwhile, the risk of unauthorized access of the G-code file is greatly eliminated as well.

Daqiang Guo, Shiquan Ling, Hao Li, Di Ao · 7 authors

The booming customized and personalized demands call for new production paradigms that complies with that change. The ubiquitous connection, digitization and sharing in the context of Industry 4.0 present an opportunity for next-generation production paradigm-personalized production, to meet the booming personalized demands with individual needs and preferences. Personalized production refers to a customer-centric production paradigm, where individual needs and preferences are transformed into personalized products and services at an affordable cost, by maximizing the benefit of connection and sharing throughout the product life-cycle. This paper reviews and identifies the evolution of production paradigms. A framework for personalized production based on digital twin, blockchain and additive manufacturing in the context of Industry 4.0 is proposed. Besides, the impact of the implementation of personalized production is discussed from the aspects of customer-centric business model, social and environmental effects and challenges of data ownership. This paper provides helpful guidance and reference for personalized production paradigm.

Maximilian Klöckner, Stefan Kurpjuweit, Chander Velu, Stephan M. Wagner

OverviewBlockchain combined with 3D printing offers businesses untapped opportunities. Blockchain can help businesses overcome intellectual property and data security barriers, allowing them to take advantage of emerging 3D printing business models. Specifically, blockchain can facilitate local manufacturing and may lay the groundwork for new business models such as secure design marketplaces and shared factories. Businesses could also improve their value proposition by offering additional services around a printed part, improving value delivery, and offering less costly and more customized products that involve fewer risks. Blockchain could transform the way firms create, deliver, and capture value in 3D printing ecosystems.

Joachim Stanke, Martin Unterberg, Daniel Trauth, Thomas Bergs

Abstract Networking and digitization in manufacturing enable novel methods of data-driven analysis and optimization of processes through cross-process data availability. The creation of digital twins plays an important role in this. However, not all data relevant for a digital twin can be measured directly in the process. Therefore, methods are needed that enable the modelling of quantities that are difficult or impossible to measure directly in the process, such as the finite element method. In many companies, however, neither the know-how nor the necessary IT infrastructure for finite element simulations is available. External commissioning processes are also not suitable for achieving the goals of higher productivity and agility pursued with the digitization and networking of manufacturing processes. In this contribution, an architecture is presented that enables the fully automated use of finite element simulation as a service. The architecture is developed using the case study of fine blanking. First, the requirements of the architecture to be created are determined. Important characteristics of the architecture should be scalability as well as interfaces and means of payment suitable for machine communication. In addition, ensuring data integrity is an important requirement when creating the digital twin. Based on the identified requirements, an architecture is then presented that meets these requirements by using cloud computing and distributed ledger technologies and interfaces that can directly process measurement signals from the process and communicate with the architecture. Finally, the capability of the architecture is tested, possible applications and limitations are discussed, and future extensions are considered.

Özden Tozanlı

The accelerated growth of technological advancements has triggered the expansion of customer demand leading to highly complex supply chain networks. One viable way original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) can respond to changing purchasing habits is to redesign their strategic and operational activities to build far-reaching information and resource avenues allied with effective marketing policies. These newly implemented policies need to comply with extended producer responsibility (EPR) guidelines that also well align with rising consumer awareness towards green consumption. To achieve this, manufacturers must create efficient end-of-life product (EOLP) return structures and ensure value creation through product recovery operations to dwindle the cascading waste of discarded products. From an environmental viewpoint, retrieving the value embedded in returned items through remanufacturing or recycling has been proven to be effective in reducing the amount of industrial solid waste. EOLP processing operations are heavily reliant on customers' participation in returning outdated devices making product collection a crucial step in point-to-point supply chains. To entice end-users, the OEMs need to design environmentally and economically benign product take-back strategies that would spark the volume of product returns. These constraints dictate two structural challenges: how manufacturers and consumers can become active participants of EOLP treatment activities, and how fast and efficiently OEMs can respond to the changing market and capital needs while preserving their sustainability levels. In terms of active participation, trade-in incentives can help stimulate additional revenue channels for OEMs through product remanufacturing while helping companies comply with the EPR legislations. Trade-in policies are set forth as part of long-term marketing strategies and include incentive programs that aim at enticing current and potential customers to trade-in their used products with newer generations at a discounted price or for instant credit. Within the context of purchasing behavior, trade-in programs positively impact customers' buying decisions by granting buyers the ability to claim the scrap value of their existing devices. Particularly in oversaturated industries such as electronics and automotive, take-back incentives are a pipeline for OEMs to generate significant residual value by reselling remanufactured products on secondary markets. Moreover, offering special discounts or credits in lieu of old devices fuels new product sales by creating an additional revenue stream. Still, in today’s fast-changing market dynamics, inept trade-in practices that fail to eliminate the ambiguity surrounding the prediction of the true quality of returned products bring functional and financial burdens to organizations. The conventional intransigent trade-in schemes fail to address this uncertainty leading to a number of unnecessary inspection, disassembly, and shipment steps resulting in increasing complexity and product recovery cost. Achieving an accurate trade-in scheme is a highly complex multi-dimensional problem requiring novel solutions that traditional manufacturing and supply chain technologies are incapable of offering by design. Such challenging task inevitably necessitates strategic initiatives that stem from the utilization of cutting-edge groundbreaking information technologies for rapid response to customer needs and reduced complexity across all operational layers. Despite the numerous methodologies investigating the potential value gain from remanufacturing and product acquisition pricing policies, there is no study in related literature that incorporates trade-in programs into an intelligent remanufacturing structure. A majority of previous studies propose preventive models with pre-determined and rule-based explicit model parameters hindering the practicability of the substantial volume of data generated by the increased use of technological tools. These models, inevitably, fall short in successfully incorporating long-term manufacturing goals into sustainable business strategies. With this motivation, the architectural framework this dissertation introduces addresses a predictive product recovery model for product returns to enable an autonomous, sensor-embedded, and decentralized disassembly and remanufacturing system. The main objective of this research is to investigate the feasibility of cost- and resource-effective end-of-life product management systems in a smart reverse logistics network where trade-in rebate decisions take place in an autonomous ecosystem. This research, while filling the emerging gap in the utilization of current digital technologies to determine quality-dependent acquisition strategies, also provides a novel quantitative analysis on the efficiency of trade-in policymaking. This model can be employed in manufacturing industries for precise assessment of value creation amid digital advancements in a future-oriented platform. Due to its highly saturated formation, the consumer electronics industry offers a more suitable platform for this study. Therefore, this study examines a trade-in model for a specific technological product, game console, with the help of a case study. First phase of the dissertation evaluates the performance degradation pattern of discarded electronics products in a ubiquitous manner through timestamp data enablers. To handle this highly complex large-volume data, a discrete-event simulation model is developed from the original equipment manufacturer viewpoint. The model aims to examine the behavior of returned devices as well as the expected overall cost of product recovery operations. Following this, a design of experiments study is utilized for the experimentation using Taguchi’s Orthogonal Arrays (OAs). Employing the findings obtained in the first phase, the second phase of the study deals with trade-in policymaking to determine an engaging quotation for varying quality of returned products from the perspectives of all parties involved in the transaction. To achieve this, an initial model for trade-in-to-upgrade incentives is established for discrete sets of quality standards in case where returned products are grouped into three quality classes based on their usage time. The model is then expanded to compare two product acquisition strategies, namely, trade-in-to-upgrade incentives and instant credits. To achieve a realistic strategy, two rebate models are constructed in a simulation-based game setting to mimic the customer behavior and to obtain the resulting payoffs for the OEM in a dynamic ecosystem. To handle the uncertainty in the customer's decision towards the incentive offer, logistic regression analysis is conducted to maximize the likelihood of the acceptance rate. Finally, trade-in policies are compared to obtain favorable strategies augment revenue streams.

Stefan Kurpjuweit, Christoph G. Schmidt, Maximilian Klöckner, Stephan M. Wagner

Additive manufacturing (AM) appears to be a particularly attractive use case for blockchain. This research combines inductive in‐depth interviews with the Delphi method to explore what potentials blockchain technology in AM creates, which adoption barriers firms need to overcome, and how supply chains will be affected by the integration of these two potentially disruptive technologies. The results suggest opportunities that are related to intellectual property (IP) rights management, the monitoring of printed parts throughout their lifecycle, process improvements, and data security. The most important barriers for blockchain adoption in AM are an absence of blockchain‐skilled specialists on the labor market, missing governance mechanisms, and a lack of firm‐internal technical expertise. By addressing important limitations of AM, blockchain is expected to improve the competitiveness of AM in parts’ production, catalyzing the trend toward more decentralized manufacturing resulting in more agile, resilient, and flexible supply chains and reduced logistics costs. Beyond that, blockchain‐based AM platforms are expected to enhance supply chain visibility, drive supply chain digitalization, support supply chain finance, and contribute to the emergence of shared factory systems.

Behzad Esmaeilian, Angshuman Deka, Sara Behdad

Abstract Prior studies have already predicted that enforcement of IP on the additive manufacturing industry will not be successful due to the widespread use of file-sharing technologies, similar to the entertainment and music industry. This paper discusses the capabilities of Blockchain technology for protecting IP in the design and manufacturing area. A conceptual framework for a digital platform is defined in this paper and further, a survey study of engineering design and manufacturing students has been conducted to identify the main motivation behind developing these platforms and the types of features that should be included in Blockchain-based IP platforms for asset protection, particularly for product design. In addition, respondents provided their opinions about the type of industry that might be affected more by the threat of counterfeiting products and the role of Blockchain-based IP systems on the growth and development of innovation.

Jiewu Leng, Pingyu Jiang, Kailin Xu, Qiang Liu · 7 authors

No abstract is available for this record.

Claudio Mandolla, Antonio Messeni Petruzzelli, Gianluca Percoco, Andrea Urbinati

No abstract is available for this record.

Nikolaos Papakostas, Anthony Newell, Vincent Hargaden

No abstract is available for this record.