Title: Distributed blockchains for collaborative product designs in smart cities

Authors: Shajulin Benedict

Addresses: Faculty-Incharge (R&D and International Affairs), Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Information Technology Kottayam, Valavoor P.O., Kottayam, Kerala, 686635, India

Abstract: Personal fabrication tools such as 3D printers encourage designers for rapidly creating innovative prototypes of products. However, an immediate end product realisation is a challenge owing to several reasons, including permission delays. This paper proposes a blockchain-enabled architecture which explores the utilisation of decentralised connected 3D printers and decision-makers for collaboratively fabricating and installing societal products in smart cities - a social computing approach. Experiments were accomplished to manifest the proposed approach; besides, a case study of printing a Taj Mahal miniature was illustrated. The proposed mechanism would reap in lots of innovations and economic improvements in smart cities in the near future.

Keywords: blockchain; collaborative design; fabrication; distributed ledger; smart city; social good applications.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSCCPS.2021.117977

International Journal of Social Computing and Cyber-Physical Systems, 2021 Vol.2 No.3, pp.256 - 274

Received: 01 Mar 2021
Accepted: 20 Jun 2021
Published online: 05 Oct 2021 *

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