Blockchain-based shared manufacturing in support of cyber physical systems: concept, framework, and operation

Shared Manufacturing (SharedMfg), a Peer-to-Peer (P2P)-based resource sharing paradigm boosted by the widespread of sharing economy, servitization and Internet of things, tends to massively extend the scope of resource sharing in both vertical and horizontal directions, and as a consequence, it amplifies a credibility gap in the manufacturing area. To respond to this problem, and meanwhile, promoting the SharedMfg, blockchain is attempted to integrate into the SharedMfg. Hence, this paper proposes the Blockchain-based SharedMfg (BSM) framework in support of the application of Cyber Physical Systems (CPS). At the same time, Resource Operation Blockchain (ROB) is constructed for the core operation of BSM framework, which carries out on the basis of a consensus mechanism (i.e., Proof-of-Participation) and a Smart Contract Network (SCN), to facilitate the P2P-based resource sharing paradigm. A prototype system is implemented by the Ethereum framework together with discussions to validate the feasibility of ROB. In brief, BSM framework complementarily combines the blockchain and SharedMfg, beneficial to promote both modes.