US 10,747,201 B2 · Subscription-based services using industrial blockchains

Abstract

Blockchain-enabled industrial devices and associated systems are configured to support the use of industrial blockchains in connection with product and machine tracking, subscription-based industrial services, device lifecycle management, and other functions. Collections of industrial devices can collectively serve as an industrial blockchain system, with multiple such systems within a supply chain yielding an industrial blockchain ecosystem. This architecture can create distributed, decentralized, tamper-proof records of manufacturing statistics for a product, a product's history within the larger supply chain, industrial asset usage histories that can be leveraged in connection with lifecycle management, machine usage history for use in connection with subscription-based machine operation, and other such information. The blockchain-enabled industrial devices can be configured to generate multiple versions of a product or machine's blockchain having respective different access permissions, allowing public and private industrial data to be segregated between public and private industrial blockchains.

Claims20

Dependent claims

An industrial device, comprising:

a memory that stores executable components;
and
a processor, operatively coupled to the memory, that executes the executable components, the executable components comprising:
an execution engine configured to execute a blockchain instruction that defines a control event to be processed as a transaction of an industrial blockchain and a termination criterion for deletion of the industrial blockchain from the industrial device, wherein the termination criterion is at least a determination that a product associated with the control event has left a manufacturing facility in which the industrial device operates;
and
a blockchain engine configured to exchange data with other devices on an industrial blockchain system, wherein the blockchain engine is further configured to,
in response to detection of a defined capture trigger that initiates recording of the control event,
verify an authenticity of the control event,
create a block of the industrial blockchain that records the control event in response to verifying the authenticity, and
send the industrial blockchain to another device on the industrial blockchain network.

7 more elements

A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions that, in response to execution, cause an industrial device comprising a processor to perform operations, the operations comprising

executing a blockchain instruction that defines a control event to be processed as a transaction of an industrial blockchain and a termination criterion for deletion of the industrial blockchain from the industrial device, wherein the termination criterion is at least a determination that a manufactured component associated with the control event has left a manufacturing facility in which the industrial device operates;
in response to detecting occurrence of the control event, verifying an authenticity of the control event;
and
in response to the verifying,
creating a block of the industrial blockchain that records the control event, and
sending the industrial blockchain to another device on an industrial blockchain network in which the industrial device participates.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Subscription-based services using industrial blockchains

Life of this patent

Subscription-based services using industrial blockchains

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20