Monitoring a manufacturing process

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12088716-B2
Application number	US-201917288142-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 23, 2019
Priority date	Oct 31, 2018
Publication date	Sep 10, 2024
Grant date	Sep 10, 2024

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to monitoring processes. A processor creates a numerical representation of a nominal operation of the process. The processor then encrypts the numerical representation using homomorphic encryption to determine an encrypted numerical representation that blocks access to the numerical representation but allows calculations on the numerical representations. The processor proceeds by creating smart contracts on a blockchain platform using the encrypted numerical representation as a first input to the calculations of the smart contract. Next, the processor attempts execution of the smart contract using the current operation of the process as a second input to the calculations of the smart contract. The execution of the smart contract generates an output result by performing the calculations on the encrypted numerical representations. Based on the output of the execution of the smart contract, the processor finally determines that the current operation is outside the nominal operation.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for monitoring a current operation of a process, the method comprising:
creating a first numerical representation of a nominal operation of the process, wherein the first numerical representation comprises numerical values to define a set of transitions of the nominal operation of the process;
encrypting the first numerical representation using homomorphic encryption to determine an encrypted numerical representation that blocks access to the first numerical representation but allows calculations on the first numerical representation;
creating smart contracts on a blockchain platform using the encrypted numerical representation as a first input to the calculations of the smart contract;
attempting execution of the smart contract using a second numerical representation of the current operation of the process as a second input to the calculations of the smart contract, execution of the smart contract generating an output result by performing the calculations on the encrypted numerical representation; and
based on the output of the execution of the smart contract determining that the current operation is outside the nominal operation.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining that the current operation is outside the nominal operation is in response to determining failure to execute the smart contract.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising blocking the current operation of the process upon determining that the current operation is outside the nominal operation.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising upon determining that the current operation is outside the nominal operation, allowing further execution of the process and generating a report indicating that the current operation is outside the nominal operation.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein creating the first numerical representation of the nominal operation comprises creating a petri net of the nominal operation and creating a numerical representation of the petri-net.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first numerical representation
is indicative of places of the nominal operation and valid transitions between the places,
comprises multiple binary nominal vectors, and
each of the multiple binary nominal vectors represents one of the valid transitions between the places.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the multiple binary nominal vectors comprise for each transition a binary preset vector indicative of one or more places that enable that transition and a binary postset vector indicative of one or more possible places after that transition.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein creating the first numerical representation comprises determining multiple traces through the places and transitions and determining the preset vectors and postset vectors such that the preset vectors and postset vectors represent the multiple traces.

9. The method of claim 6 , wherein the second numerical representation of the current operation of the process comprises a binary current state vector and the smart contracts comprise a binary operation based on the current state vector and the encrypted nominal vectors.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the calculations of the smart contracts comprise a binary operation based on a previous state vector indicative of a previous state of the operation.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the calculations of the smart contracts comprise a binary operation between an encrypted previous state vector and an encrypted current state vector.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the calculations of the smart contract comprise a selection of transitions based on a binary operation using an encrypted postset vector and based on the encrypted postset vector.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the calculations of the smart contract comprise a condition that the result of the selection is equal to a set of transitions enabled by the current state of the operation.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein attempting execution of the smart contract comprises attempting to satisfy the condition by performing the calculations.

15. The method of claim 11 , wherein the calculations of the smart contract comprise a binary AND operation between an encrypted previous state vector and an encrypted current state vector and a binary XOR operation between the encrypted current state vector and the result of the AND operation.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the calculations of the smart contract comprise a selection of transitions where the result of an AND operation between the encrypted postset vector and the result of the XOR operation is equal to the encrypted postset vector.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the smart contract is configured such that a success of the execution of the smart contract leads to integration of a transaction into the blockchain.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the transaction integrated into the blockchain represents a valid transition to the current state.

19. The method of claim 1 , wherein creating the smart contracts comprises checking the smart contracts for compliance against a set of rules.

20. A non-transitory computer readable medium with software code stored thereon that, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of claim 1 .

21. A system for monitoring a current operation of a process, the system comprising:
a data store;
a processor configured to:
create a first numerical representation of a nominal operation of the process and store the created numerical representation on the data store, wherein the first numerical representation comprises numerical values to define a set of transitions of the nominal operation of the process;
encrypt the first numerical representation using homomorphic encryption to determine an encrypted numerical representation that blocks access to the first numerical representation but allows calculations on the first numerical representations;
create smart contracts on a blockchain platform using the encrypted numerical representation as a first input to the calculations of the smart contract;
attempt execution of the smart contract using a second numerical representation of the current operation of the process as a second input to the calculations of the smart contract, execution of the smart contract generating an output result by performing the calculations on the encrypted numerical representation; and
based on the output of the execution of the smart contract determining that the current operation is outside the nominal operation.

22. A method for monitoring a current operation of a process, the method comprising:
converting transitions of a nominal operation of the process into a first numerical representation of the nominal operation of the process;
encrypting the first numerical representation using homomorphic encryption to determine an encrypted numerical representation that blocks access to the first numerical representation but allows calculations on the first numerical representation;
creating smart contracts on a blockchain platform using the encrypted numerical representation as a first input to the calculations of the smart contract;
attempting execution of the smart contract using a second numerical representation of the current operation of the process as a second input to the calculations of the smart contract, execution of the smart contract generating an output result by performing the calculations on the encrypted numerical re

Assignees

• Commw Scient Ind Res Org
• Commonwealth Scient And Industrial Research Organisation Action

Inventors

• Riveret Regis
• Tosatto Silvano Colombo
• Van Beest Nick
• Governatori Guido

Classifications

• H04L9/008

  involving homomorphic encryption · CPC title

• G05B2219/24015

  Monitoring · CPC title

• G05B19/048

  Monitoring; Safety · CPC title

• H04L9/50

  using hash chains, e.g. blockchains or hash trees · CPC title

• Y02P90/30

  Computing systems specially adapted for manufacturing · CPC title