HVAC Task Validation Using Blockchain to Prevent Rework
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Solution Overview
Problem
HVAC system tasks often lack coordination between actors, leading to errors such as skipped, incomplete, or incorrectly performed actions, resulting in increased costs, time, and maintenance issues due to late detection of errors.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a blockchain-based system where control devices record and validate actions in real-time, ensuring that each action is verified by other control devices before proceeding, preventing duplication and ensuring accurate task completion.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If multiple actors perform tasks on an HVAC system without coordination, then task execution flexibility is improved, but action accuracy deteriorates due to skipped, duplicated, or incorrect actions
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements real-time feedback mechanisms where control devices continuously monitor and report actions taken on the HVAC system to a centralized platform. This feedback loop enables immediate detection of skipped, duplicated, or incorrect actions, allowing for real-time correction while maintaining operational flexibility among multiple actors.
Solution Approach 2:
A centralized task management platform acts as an intermediary between multiple actors and the HVAC system. This mediator coordinates actions, validates their correctness, and ensures proper sequencing without restricting the ability of different actors to perform their assigned tasks independently.
2Device complexity
If validation of actions is performed late in the task process, then coordination complexity is reduced, but rework requirements increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs validation actions preliminarily and continuously throughout the task execution process rather than waiting until completion. Control devices validate actions as they occur, enabling early detection of errors and preventing the accumulation of rework before the task is complete.
3Manufacturing precision
If real-time validation of actions is implemented, then action accuracy is improved, but system complexity increases due to blockchain implementation
Solution Approach 1:
The blockchain infrastructure serves multiple functions simultaneously: it records actions, validates their correctness, maintains audit trails, and coordinates between control devices. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate validation systems, offsetting the complexity increase with consolidated functionality.
4Reliability
If actions are recorded and validated by multiple control devices, then task integrity is improved, but processing time increases due to validation requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements partial validation where critical actions require validation by multiple control devices while less critical actions can proceed with minimal validation. This selective approach maintains task integrity for important operations while preserving overall task completion speed through optimized validation requirements.
Data Source
AI summary
Validating a task being performed on an HVAC system is described herein. One system includes a plurality of control devices associated with a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system, wherein each respective control device is configured to record an action, taken by that control device as part of a task being performed on the HVAC system, as a block in a block chain for the task, send the block to the other control devices for validation of the action in the block chain for the task, update, upon the validation of the recorded action, the block chain for the task with the block having the recorded action, and store the updated block chain for the task.