2019 Summer Mentee Project Update: Hyperledger configuration for project management in construction

Project Description

Construction management configuration of blockchain is a project of the Hyperledger Summer Mentorship Program 2019 that provides a way to apply Hyperledger technologies to construction and engineering (C&E) since literature research and practical simulation prove Hyperledger Fabric as one of the best platforms for C&E. 

This project was conceived to test the potential of blockchains. To do this, a prototype system is used to model real-world commercial process by defining the properties of participant attributes superimposed with algorithms that describe their trading relationships. These are implemented using so-called smart-contracts that make use of the latest features of Hyperledger Fabric  and Hyperledger Composer to model commercial relations between traders in a trust network.

Using Fabric delivers a variety of benefits. For example, the scheduling, confirmation and commissioning of installed components at a construction site can be recorded and, therefore, managed. But management of a Fabric network is a demanding job and good design is essential to allow confidential trading to take place. The access control list (ACL), included within Composer, provides the tools to create, read, update, or delete elements within the commercial network’s domain model. The project has advanced this control by making use of an application programming interface (API) to connect to Web servers that in turn can provide analysis and management applications. This links to common project management tools, notably Gantt charts and other projects metrics such as individual work rates, cost and budgetary items that can be used in reports and figures. 

Tools: Hyperledger Fabric, Hyperledger Composer, Node.js, javascript.

Analyze real construction process

System architecture

Access control for participants

Accomplishments

  • Created a system design for a construction management blockchain implemented on Hyperledger Fabric and Hyperledger Composer.
  • Built an access control list for manipulating access rights of individuals in the blockchain system.
  • Developed an API for connecting Hyperledger Fabric with web services.
  • Built a website for easily making transaction from customer and exchanging information.
  • Created algorithms that are able to analyze data inside a blockchain and represent results in the form of statistics figures such as Gantt chart, line chart and pipe chart.
  • Developed a tutorial on github for installing and using the system.
  • Wrote science publications.

Plan for the future

  • The project is only implemented in localhost for testing functions of blockchain system because of limited budget and computer power. If the project is funded for a free account of cloud and computers, a blockchain system can be deployed on a cloud by using docker and tested in real conditions.
  • With detailed documents and source code, the project would equip developers to convert business needs to algorithms and implement them to chaincode, generate APIs for exchanging data between user and blockchain system, create user interface, make statistics and apply machine learning algorithm for data in transactions. Furthermore, the project’s system architecture defines a method  to combine blockchain, statistics and machine learning based on smart contracts, which would be helpful for Hyperledger to develop extend modules.

For more details, please see my complete project report here.

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