Block Chain I/O – What Bitcoin Can Teach Automation

Abstract

Internet of Things (IoT) are being adopted for industrial and manufacturing applications such as manufacturing automation, remote machine diagnostics, prognostic health management of industrial machines and supply chain management. CloudBased Manufacturing is a recent on-demand model of manufacturing that is leveraging IoT technologies. While Cloud-Based Manufacturing enables on-demand access to manufacturing resources, a trusted intermediary is required for transactions between the users who wish to avail manufacturing services. We present a decentralized, peer-to-peer platform called BPIIoT for Industrial Internet of Things based on the Block chain technology. With the use of Blockchain technology, the BPIIoT platform enables peers in a decentralized, trustless, peer-to-peer network to interact with each other without the need for a trusted intermediary.

Keywords

Internet of Things, Blockchain, Smart Contracts, Cloud-Based Manufacturing

1. Introduction

Internet of Things (IoT) comprises “Things” (or IoT devices) which have remote sensing and/or actuating capabilities, and can exchange data with other connected devices and applications (directly or indirectly). IoT devices can collect data and process the data either locally or send the data to centralized servers or cloud-based application back-ends for processing. IoT technologies are promising for industrial and manufacturing systems. Experts have forecast a trillion dollar impact of IoT on the industrial and manufacturing sectors. A recent on-demand model of manufacturing that is leveraging IoT technologies is called Cloud-Based Manufacturing (CBM). CBM enables ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable manufacturing resources that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. In this paper, we propose a decentralized, peer-to-peer platform called BPIIoT for Industrial Internet of Things based on Blockchain, the technology that powers the crypto-currency Bitcoin. The BPIIoT platform will act as a key-enabler for cloud-based manufacturing, enhancing the functionality of existing CBM platforms, especially towards integrating legacy shop floor equipment into the cloud environment. While Cloud-Based Manufacturing enables on-demand access to manufacturing resources, a trusted intermediary is required for transactions between the users who wish to avail manufacturing services. With the use of Block chain technology, the BPIIoT platform enables peers in a decentralized, trustless, peer-to-peer network to interact with each other without the need for a trusted intermediary.

2. Related Work

The Blockchain technology was introduced along with Bitcoin by Satoshi Nakamoto. The Bitcoin transactions are recorded in a public ledger called the Blockchain. IBM and Samsung have announced a collaboration to build decentralized IoT solutions by leveraging the Blockchain technology. Slock it has developed a smart lock technology called Slocks which enables real-world physical objects to be controlled by the Blockchain. The owners of a Slock who wants to rent their real-world physical objects (such as houses, cars or bikes) set a deposit amount and a price for using the objects. Users can find the Slocks using the mobile app and then make a payment in Ethers to rent the objects. After the transactions are validated on the Ethereum Blockchain network, the users get permission to open or close the Slocks with their smartphone. A smart contract is automatically enforced between the owner and the user. After the object is returned, the deposit minus the cost of the rental is returned to the user.

Trans Active Grid has developed a combination of software and hardware technologies that enable users to buy and sell solar energy from each other securely and automatically, using smart contracts and the Blockchain. Filament has built an open technology stack based on Blockchain technology, to enable devices to discover, communicate, and interact with each other in a fully autonomous and distributed manner. A review of Blockchain and smart contracts and applications of Blockchain for IoT are described in.

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