Implementing Digital Twins Using Azure IoT Hub & BigchainDB

Digital Twins:   Analyst  Gartner  has  recently  released  2018  Technology  Trends.  Along  with  expected  technologies  like   Artificial Intelligence,  Immersive  User Experiences, Blockchain..one import  trend is  about  Digital  Twin.

As  the  name  suggest  is  Digital  Twin  is the  Digital  representation  of a  real  world  entity,  typically  available  in  Cloud  and  maintains  the  current  status  about  the  Device  along  with its  properties.  As  it  reduces  the  need  to  Query  the  Physical  Device   (which is  generally  costly and  subject  to   connectivity  issues),  Digital  Twins  find  lot of  value  in  Asset  Management  of  large  machinery  , especially  in  reducing  the  Maintenance  and  Repair  Operations. Also  Device twins  facilitate   Remote  Management  of  machinery making  them  more  efficient.

Digital Twins  practically  can extend  any industry,  starting  with Smart Cities, Government, Manufacturing,  Healthcare, Retail  and more.

BigchainDB  As Asset Management Solution :     BigchainDB is  a  scalable  database  with Blockchain  characteristics.  As  mentioned  in  my previous  articles,  BigchainDB  while  can be used  for  many situations,  one  of the  important  use  case  being  'Asset Registrations and Transfers'. When you  make a  CREATE transaction  in BigChainDB  it  registers an Asset  and tags it  with  the  respective  metadata.  BigchainDB  subsequently  tracks  the  Asset  ownership  till  its life time.

Azure  Iot Hub :   IoT  hub  is  part  of Azure's  IoT  services  and  provides  secure bi-directional connectivity  to  Devices.  It  provides  Per  Devices  Authentication  and  Secure  Connectivity.  IoT Hub also  provides  options to  send  configuration and maintenance  operations to Device  and  in turn record  the  status  of  Devices after those operations.

So  considering  the  use  cases  of  above  2  products  it  would  be  worth while to  implement  Digital Twins  (Device  Twins)  using   BigChainDB  and  Azure  IoT  Hub.

Scenario :    Consider  a  Scenario  where  a  large  Crane  Manufacturer  ,  leases  cranes  to  be  used  by  various   real  estate builders and other  organizations.  In this scenario BigChainDB  is used to maintain the  larger  Device Specifications  about the  Crane  itself  and  also  maintain the  current  lessee (owner). The  specific  agreements  for  the  usage  and  other legal  and  regulatory  compliance  of the  Crane  can  be  maintained  in  a  blockchain  network  like  BigchainDB. However the crane  is also monitored  for  functional  efficiencies  using  IoT and   status  of  the  crane is   updated in  real  time  to  Azure  IoT  Hub.  Now  the  following  piece  of  implementation  will  link  both   Bigchain DB  and  IoT  Hub  and  will  show  cause the value  of   Digital  Twins.

Register  Device  In BigchainDB :
bdb_root_url = 'http://localhost:9984'  # Use YOUR BigchainDB Root URL here
bdb = BigchainDB(bdb_root_url)
crane_asset = {
            'data': {
                        'crane': {
                            'manufacturer':'crane manufacturer',
                            'model': 'my model',
                            'engine':{
                                 'model':'engine model',
                                 'type':'4 cycle, 6 cylinder',
                                 'pistondisplacement':'12000',
                                 'maxoutput':'100'
                                },
                            'tires':{
                                'front':'12R22',
                                'rear':'12R22'
                                },
                             'tankcapacity':'300L',
                             'performance':{
                                  'maxtravellingspeed':'64km/h',
                                  'gradeability':'65'
                                 },
                             'frontjack':{
                                  'floatsize':'250'
                                 },
                            },
                        },
            }
crane_asset_metadata = {
            'currentlocation': 'new york'
            }
prepared_creation_tx = bdb.transactions.prepare(
            operation='CREATE',
                signers=crane_owner_public,
                    asset=crane_asset,
                        metadata=crane_asset_metadata
                        )
fulfilled_creation_tx = bdb.transactions.fulfill(
            prepared_creation_tx,
                private_keys=crane_owner_private
                )
sent_creation_tx = bdb.transactions.send(fulfilled_creation_tx)

The  above  piece  of  code  creates  the  initial  registration  of  the  Crane.  While  the  set  of  metadata  is  not  an  exhaustive  set  of  attributes  for  a  crane  it  does  provide  an  idea  about  how a  Device's  meta  data  will  be maintained  in the BigchainDB  along  with  the  information about  current  owner.

Now  let  us  assume  that  after  registration,  BigChainDB  creates a   DeviceID  as  follows.

Crane Device Id  In BigchainDB :  9da06f5a07c3d8a3ae27cd9d5bb7019ec276651d0d49fc4275d2771834b344c2

Create Azure Iot Hub:   Azure  IoT  Hub  is  quite  easy  to  create  from  Azure  Portal,  the  following  screen  shot  shows  an  implementation  of  Azure IoT Hub.

The  Important  values  to  look are  the Shared  Access Policies  which  provides  connectivity and authentication  information  for  connecting  to  this IoT  Hub.

Register the  Device Created In BigChainDB  with Azure IoT  Hub;

The  next  step  is  to  register the Device  that  is  created  in BigchainDB  with Azure IoT  Hub, so that  it  provides a  link between the two systems. Such  that  the  Asset ownership and  legal needs can be  tracked  using  BigchainDB  and  the  Device  Telemetry  and  Remote  Monitoring  and  Preventive Maintenance  can  be  tracked  using  Azure  IoT  Services. However due to  linkage of the metadata  both  the  implementations  can be viewed  in  sync.

var iothub = require('azure-iothub');

var connectionString = 'HostName=bigcazureiot.azure-devices.net;SharedAccessKeyName=iothubowner;SharedAccessKey=**********=';

var registry = iothub.Registry.fromConnectionString(connectionString);

var device = {
          deviceId: '9da06f5a07c3d8a3ae27cd9d5bb7019ec276651d0d49fc4275d2771834b344c2'
}
registry.create(device, function(err, deviceInfo, res) {
          if (err) {
                      registry.get(device.deviceId, printDeviceInfo);
                    }
          if (deviceInfo) {
                      printDeviceInfo(err, deviceInfo, res)
                    }
});

function printDeviceInfo(err, deviceInfo, res) {
          if (deviceInfo) {
                      console.log('Device ID: ' + deviceInfo.deviceId);
                      console.log('Device key: ' + deviceInfo.authentication.symmetricKey.primaryKey);
                    }
}

Now  the  above  code  will  create  the  device identity  in  Azure IoT  Hub. While  the  code  is  self explanatory  and  uses  the  connectivity  string  as  obtained  under  the  'shared access policies',  the important  thing  to  look into  is  about  the  Device Id.

Device ID  can be  any  meaningful  identity  for the  Device  which  will  act as a  primary  key for the  device,   However in this  case  we  have  used  the   Asset  ID  that  is  created by BigchainDB  and  thus  the linkage  between the  Asset  representation for legality purposes  and  Device  Representation  from  Telemetry  perspective  are  linked.

After  the  above  program  is  executed, you  will   find  the  Device  is registered in  IoT  Hub  with the  same  ID  as  established by BigchainDB.

Device  Twins  may  provide  much  more  benefits  when  it  comes  to large  machinery  whose  maintenance  and  legal  management  of  compliance  needs  are always  complicated.  This  kind  of  solution  involving  BigchainDB  and Azure  IoT Hub  may be  of interest  to enterprises.

This  solution  not only makes   the  Machinery  Operations  smarter with  Device  Telemetry,  by  linking  with  the  Asset Management  solution  of  BigchainDB,   device ownership  over a  period  and  its  history  can  be  tracked  and  transparently  available.  This will  help  with  lot  of maintenance  issues  and  associated  legal  compliances.

(Please  note  that  in this  post  Device/Digital  and  Asset  have  been  used  interchangeably).