imseStudio: blockchain-enabled secure digital twin platform for service manufacturing

Abstract

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 resources

• Service-oriented digital twinning model is developed to transform physical resources into digital services

• Rule-based off-chain matching mechanism is built to bridge customers’ orders with 3D printer

• Four blockchain explorers are developed to facilitate 3D printing services

KEYWORDS:

• Blockchain
• digital twin
• service manufacturing
• 3D printing service

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the partial supports from National Key R&D Program of China No. 2019YFB1705401, Research Grants Council Research Impact Fund No. R7027-18, and Strategic Public Policy Research Funding Scheme No. S2019.A8.013.19S, Seed Fund for Basic Research in HKU under Grant 201906159001, Guangdong Special Support Talent Program - Innovation and Entrepreneurship Leading Team under Grant 2019BT02S593 and ITF project (PRP/068/20LI). Authors are grateful to industrial collaborators for providing field studies and technical supports.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Xinlai Liu

Xinlai Liu is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering, The University of Hong Kong. He gained his B.Eng. and Master Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Shenzhen University (China) and Guangdong University of Technology (China), respectively. His research interests include blockchain and smart manufacturing.

Yishuo Jiang

Yishuo Jiang is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering, The University of Hong Kong. He gained his B.Eng. and Master Degree in Construction Engineering from Tianjin University (China) and Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong, China), respectively. His research interests include digital twin, blockchain, smart construction, smart fit-out.

Zicheng Wang

Zicheng Wang is a master student in the Department of Computer Science, The University of Hong Kong. He gained his B.Eng. in Automation from Tianjin University (China). His research interests include the service-oriented manufacturing information systems.

Ray Y. Zhong

Ray Y. Zhong (Runyang Zhong) is an Assistant Professor in The Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering, The University of Hong Kong. He was a lecturer in The Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Auckland, New Zealand from 2016 to 2019. Ray gained his M.Phil. and Ph.D. in Signal and Information Processing and Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering from the Guangdong University of Technology (China) and The University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong), respectively. His research interests include Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled manufacturing, Big Data in manufacturing and SCM and data-driven APS. He has published over 100 papers in international journals and conferences. Ray serves as editorial boards and guest editors for several well-known international journals: International Journal of Production Economics, Computers and Industrial Engineering: An International Journal, International Journal of Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, etc. In addition, he has participated in a set of projects sponsored by the National R&D department, HK ITF and HKU. He is a member of CIRP RA, ASME (USA), IET (UK), IEEE (USA) and LSCM HK.

H. H. Cheung

H. H. Cheung obtained his B.Eng., M.Phil. and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Hong Kong. Prior to joining the University of Hong Kong, he has worked in manufacturing and IT industries as an RFID consultant for several years. He has gained substantial experience in developing and managing RFID-based solutions, and the provision of consultancy services to implement RFID applications to various industries/enterprises. Dr. Cheung has also participated in several industrial application projects of RFID and IoT technologies, including RFID-based systems for product anti-counterfeiting, food processing management, manufacturing and logistics management of a global printing enterprise, governmental project for inventory management and baggage management of a major international airport. His research interests include CAD/CAM, Layered Manufacturing (3D Printing), Virtual Prototyping and Virtual Manufacturing, Product Development, E-commerce, RFID, NFC and IoT applications.

George Q. Huang

George G.Q. Huang is Chair Professor and Head of Department in Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering, The University of Hong Kong. He gained his B.Eng. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Southeast University (China) and Cardiff University (UK), respectively. He has conducted research projects in the field of Physical Internet (Internet of Things) for Manufacturing and Logistics with substantial government and industrial grants. He has published extensively including over two hundred refereed journal papers in addition to over 200 conference papers and 10 monographs, edited reference books and conference proceedings. His research works have been widely cited in the relevant field. He serves as an associate editor and an editorial member for several international journals. He is a Chartered Engineer (CEng), a fellow of ASME, HKIE, IET and CILT, and a member of IIE.