DigitaP

In the context of digitalisation and the growing flexibility of manufacturing processes (Industry 4.0), creating a decentralised manufacturing process according to the particular demands is increasingly important. In future, manufacturing will shift to become mostly additive manufacturing. Due to limited monitoring opportunities, the risk that loopholes could be exploited to create non-legitimate copies of products could increase. 

Another challenge is the modification of product composition during the life cyle – for example, through maintenance. For each modification, it must be ensured that the spare part is legitimate and authorised to connect with the product mechanically and at the IT level. This necessitates the reliable identification of spare parts using this cyber-physical system.

The objective of DigitaP is to create a digital procedure to clearly mark products in a forgery-proof manner with the help of crypto chips and blockchain technology. Both technologies enable digital object memories for each product and generate trustworthy systems. Thus, DigitaP aims to enable the transparent tracing of products and related information over their entire life span and across company boundaries using interoperable blockchain systems.

The DigitaP project achieved two key development goals in 2020. Additionally, the team released two publications as primary authors and two publications as co-authors. 

In DigitaP we are working on an identity management system for Internet of Things (IoT) devices focusing on an Industry 4.0 use case. Using an attribute-based identity model, we want to ensure that only suitable spare parts are installed during the life cycle. For our first development goal, we implemented this identity verification process. Using a zero-knowledge proof, the identity attributes that define a spare part can be securely queried without a malicious device being able to eavesdrop on these attributes and allowed to pass itself off as a suitable part in the future. A more detailed description can be found in our paper.

After a spare part has successfully passed the inspection, the system should pass on all relevant information collected during its lifetime to the successor to ensure seamless integration. 
This challenge was our second development goal. We have implemented an object memory for this purpose, which can be transferred from the installed part to the spare part.

The monetisation possibilities of such an identity system will be presented in a book chapter which will appear at the end of 2021. This type of decentralised identity management system is also used outside of Industry 4.0 cases, as our project team as co-authors show in the case of a system for verifying emission values ​​of imported goods for CO2 trading, as well as in the case of IoT cameras for generating trustworthy video streams.