Reconfigurable Production Lines for Industrial 5.0 Automation: An Intent-Based Approach

Reconfigurable production lines empowered by an intent-based approach and next-generation wireless networks can be a cornerstone of the transformative Industry 5.0 paradigm. This article presents a novel framework for developing an intent-based reconfigurable production line enriched with blockchain technology. By using blockchain as an enabler for decentralization, the proposed approach aims to integrate security and efficiency into the fabric of industrial automation. Experimental evaluations confirm the effectiveness of the proposed approach (in terms of scalability and latency) and highlight its strengths and potential for improvement. To be more precise, the blockchain systems are 85 to 95 seconds faster than the cloud service for 50 simultaneous transactions and offer around 69% lower latency at maximum utilization with 10 000 events. Important challenges such as integration into the existing infrastructure, security, standardization and energy efficiency are highlighted and recommendations for overcoming these hurdles are also given at the end of the article.