IT202100011978A1 - Method for recording a timed handover of electronically tagged pallets - Google Patents

Description

Description of the Industrial Invention entitled:

?Method for recording a timed handover of electronically labeled pallets?

DESCRIPTION

The present invention relates to a method for recording a timed delivery passage of electronically labeled pallets.

Among the barriers to the marketing of new epallets, one of the main ones? lack of trust between parties involved in the process (eg builders, shippers, customers, etc.), as well as quality assurance, functionality? packaging, shipping and delivery considerations, integrity? of the supply chain, environmental issues, etc.

The globalization of the economy has greatly increased the options available for long-haul door-to-door logistics businesses, but at the same time it has posed new challenges. Therefore, the need remains to improve the process of introducing new epallets to the market, and simplify the reuse and supply of recycled epallets, capable of satisfying a highly variable demand.

Purpose of the present invention? that of solving the problems indicated above, providing a method for recording a timed delivery passage of electronically labeled pallets as claimed in claim 1.

The present invention relates to a method for recording the secure and non-repudiable passage (delivery) of electronically labeled pallets, by means of encrypted transactions.

Pi? precisely the invention describes a method why? the secure and non-repudiable registration of the passage of delivery of electronically labeled pallets (5) takes place, without an intermediary, between an operator-transferring subject (1) and an operator-receiving subject (3); such registration? transcribed in an archive distributed on a network among peers (2) and ? implemented by an autonomous computational module, with certifying function, having the power of a complete Turing machine.

The method includes the following stages:

i) loading said pallets (5), labeled electronically, into an instance of the distributed database (4), by said transferor operator (1), by means of an information traffic processing subsystem designed for logging and archiving of the received data, i.e. a data acquisition and normalization platform;

ii) identification of the receiving operator-subject (3), among those authorized to operate on the peer network (2) and indication of the date and time of expected delivery; iii) acceptance (6) of said electronically labeled pallets (otherwise called epallets) by recording on said distributed database (4) by the receiving operator (3) of the delivery of said epallets (5), designed to aggregate the normalized acquired data on a time basis at regular intervals indicating the archived information;

iv) encrypted subscription (7) of the receiving operator (3) of the successful delivery of said epallets (5), in which said subscription (7) is implemented with private key digital signature, only after the successful delivery, specified by the transferring operator (1) referred to in phase i);

v) geographic localization using a GPS locator designed to detect the geographic coordinates of the position of the pallet.

In this way, the receiving operator (3) signs that he is the new consignee of said electronically labeled pallets (5), thus releasing the transferring operator (1) from the complete responsibility deriving from the possession of said epallets ( 5).

In one embodiment of the method, said distributed database (4) is managed through a block chain mechanism, otherwise known in the state of the art as a blockchain, digitally signed with a timestamp, to make the delivery passage of the electronically labeled pallets, unambiguous, secure and non-repudiable.

If required, when transcription of the transaction block on the peer network (2), the status of the delivery, ? freely inspectable by third parties (nodes), accredited on said network (2).

In this way there will be no more pallets (5) lost, stolen or lost, why? will be it is always possible to trace the last consignee of said pallets (5), who having signed the acceptance with his own private signature, will not be able to? repudiate the state of possession.

In particular, the method according to the present description comprises the following steps:

1. originator operator authentication (1)

2. loading epallets (5) into a distributed database

3. epallet delivery registration (5)

4. receiving operator identification (3) 5. virtual delivery to the receiving operator (3)

6. acceptance of delivery

7. blockchain inspection of the state of the epallets (5).

Therefore, the phase of enabling the receiving operator (3) to receive the electronically labeled pallets (5) can? start only after the delivery specification phase by the transferring operator (1). This time instant is communicated to the receiving operator (3) in the transmitted notification. Once enabled to receive, the receiving operator (3) will be able to? in turn act as transferor operator (1) for all or part of the pallets (5) under his responsibility Preferably, the enabling of the receiving operator (3) to receive the electronically labeled pallets (5) ? exclusively reserved to the receiving operator (3) the same and pu? start after the delivery registered by the transferring operator (1) during the completion phase of the successful delivery.

In one embodiment, the peer network (2) implements a distributed database (4), in which the yielding operator can? memorize the epallets (5) in its possession (availability) to share in pools in the logistics system and can? deliver them to the receiving operator (3). There? provides that the receiving operator (3) is informed of the fact that someone (the information about the identity of the transferring operator (1) can be communicated or not, depending on the embodiment) has arranged a ?passage ? of epallets (5) between the seller (1) and the recipient (3).

According to this description, the actual delivery of the epallets (5) ? temporally conditioned by originator operator (1) being specified on the peer network (2) and registration ? physically implemented by said certifying smart contract.

In one embodiment, the peer-to-peer distributed database (4) is managed via a block chain mechanism, otherwise known as a blockchain, digitally signed with a timestamp, to make the delivery handover of the electronically labeled pallets (5) secure and not repudiable.

In one embodiment, ? it is also foreseen that, in real time, the receiving operator (3) can see on the distributed database (4) the time in which the epallets (5) have been delivered and sign with the private key for acceptance

The characteristics of the operators enabled on the network are defined on the basis of pre-established user classes, when the network (2) ? managed by the block chain mechanism, the nodes of the operators enabled on the network constitute a permissioned blockchain.

The blockchain? configured to protect all operators, originators (1) and recipients (3), and third parties, with respect to the protection of the content of the recordings, which are made unreadable for anyone who is not authorized.

The certifying smart-contract also has a clock function; the smart contract? configured to associate a timestamp to the epallet transfer transaction block (5).

The present invention also includes a computer program for managing blockchains, complete with smart-contracts and asymmetric key systems, and an IP peer network apparatus for implementing the method of sharing electronically labeled pallets (5) described above .

This and other characteristics will become more evident from the following description of a preferred embodiment, illustrated purely by way of non-limiting example in the attached drawings, in which:

- figure 1 shows a block diagram describing the method according to the present invention; figure 2 illustrates a schematic representation of an apparatus for realizing the method of timed delivery of electronically labeled pallets between a transferring operator and a receiving operator, registered on the peer network.

Figure legend

The found ? a method for recording the safe and non-repudiable delivery passage of electronically labeled pallets between an operator-transferring subject (1) and an operator-subject receiving (3), via a distributed network among peers (2), implemented by a computational module autonomous, with certifier function, having the power of a complete Turing machine.

As seen, the method comprises the following phases: i) loading of said electronically labeled pallets (5), in an instance of a database (4) distributed among peers, by said transferring operator (1), ii) identification of the ? receiving subject operator (3), among those authorized to operate on the peer network (2) and of the time instant of delivery, iii) taking charge (6) of said pallets (5) electronically labeled (epallet) by recording on said distributed network (2) in the wallet of the receiving operator (3) of the successful delivery of said pallets (5 ) tagged electronically stored on said distributed database (4); iv) encrypted subscription (7) of the receiving operator (3) of the receipt of said pallets (5) labeled electronically through said distributed database (2), wherein said subscription (7) is implemented with digital signature with private key only, after that the successful transfer of delivery, specified by the transferring operator (1) referred to in phase i).

In this way, the receiving operator (3) subscribes that ? consignee of these electronically labeled pallets, freeing the transferor operator from liability? resulting from the possession of said pallets.

If envisaged, when registering the transaction on the distributed network, the status of the delivery, ? autonomously inspectable by third parties, accredited on said network distributed among peers. In this way there will be no more lost, stolen or lost pallets, why? will be always questionable who? the last consignee of said pallets, and that having signed the taking charge with his own private signature, cannot? repudiate the state of possession, through the? analysis of the passages of delivery of the pallets identified electronically you will know? unequivocally the last consignee of said pallets, and that having signed the taking charge with his own private signature, cannot? repudiate the state.

This blockchain recording of the secure and non-repudiable delivery passage of the epallets (5) finds an advantageous application, for example, in the case in which the transferring operator wants to be guaranteed of the assumption of responsibility by the receiving operator (3); or, in cases where the transferring operator (1) deems it necessary to inform the receiving operator (3) in advance of the expected delivery, by sending a notification, will the transaction be completed? with the recipient's signature for acceptance.

The acceptance by the receiving operator (3) can? be obtained, in an explanatory and non-exhaustive way, through the implementation of encryption techniques known from the state of the art of the permissioned blockchain technique, enhanced with smart-contracts; in particular, are it possible to implement, between the phase (5) and the acceptance phase (6), encryption techniques which produce an encryption having valid? time of delivery to the receiving operator (3).

The method always identifies a person responsible for the pallet and therefore in the event of loss, theft or damage, the consignee will answer for it. jointly. In this way it is believed to put a stop to the negative phenomenon of the millions of pallets lost every year.

According to an alternative embodiment, the identity? of the transferor operator (1) pu? be anonymous in the notification sent to the receiving operator (3). This alternative embodiment finds advantageous application in the case in which the transferring operator (1) deems it important that the receiving operator (3) becomes aware of some information, but also considers it prejudicial (for himself and/or for the receiving operator (3)) to reveal his identity? or an own Internet reference attributable to him. In any case, the use of the blockchain technique makes the mechanism secure, with the possibility of control and monitoring of sharing processes by third parties.

The transferor operator (1) can? access the database distributed among peers (2), equipped with a physical memory (5), by means of an electronic device (4) and a connection to an Internet network (6); electronic devices (4) can be, by way of example and not limited to, a personal computer, a laptop, a tablet or a smartphone.

The receiving operator (3) therefore has its own digital space at its disposal, created by allocating a portion of the physical memory (5) to which it can? access the distributed database (4) where you can check the electronically labeled pallets addressed to him.

In this way, the method object of the present invention protects both the transferring operator (1) and the receiving operator (3) with respect to the exchanged pallets, whose status can be verified by anyone who is not the transferring operator (1) or receiving operator ( 3).

In the particular case, to make the electronically labeled pallets legible only to the transferor operator (1) and to the receiving operator (3), encryption techniques known from the state of the art can be implemented.

Alternatively, in the virtual transit space of the distributed database, only electronically labeled pallets can be present for which the receiving operator (3) has not yet proceeded to accept, while electronically labeled pallets already? accepted by the receiving operator (3) are automatically deleted from the server's buffer (2).

Figure 2 illustrates a schematic representation of an apparatus for implementing the method of sharing on a network equal to deliveries of electronically labeled pallets between the transferring operator (1) and the receiving operator (3).

As said, the operator transferor (1) can? access the instance of the database (4) distributed among peers, equipped with a physical memory (8), using any suitable electronic device (9) and a connection to the Internet (10).

In particular, the apparatus comprises a distributed database (4) and an Internet network (10). The distributed database (4) comprises a physical memory (8) suitable for storing the access credentials of each transferring operator (1), the electronically labeled pallets loaded by each transferring operator (1) during the loading phase (5), the references of each receiving operator (3) designated by each transferring operator (1); a data processing software (11), loaded in the physical memory (8) able to collect and process the access credentials of each transferring operator (1), to transmit a notification (6) to each receiving operator (3) of the presence of pallets labeled electronically and addressed to them, and to manage the phase of enabling (7) to receive the pallets labeled electronically for each receiving operator (3).

The processing software (11) can, optionally, implement an encryption technique and/or a time encryption technique through a certifying smart contract; in the first case, the encryption technique makes the electronically labeled pallets available exclusively to the transferring operator (1) and to the receiving operator (3). In the second case, the encryption technique makes the electronically labeled pallets usable also by third parties, provided registered on the block network (permissioned blockchain). As previously said, the encryption techniques mentioned can be implemented between the loading phase (5) and the acceptance phase (6) by the receiving operator (3).

Claims (9)

1. Method for the registration, without an intermediary, of the safe and non-repudiable passage of delivery of pallets (5) labeled electronically in a unique way between an operator-transferring subject (1) and an operator-receiving subject (3), called registration being transcribed in an archive distributed on a peer network (2) and being implemented by an autonomous computational module, with the function of certifier, having the power of a complete Turing machine, the method comprising the following phases: i) loading of said electronically labeled pallets (5), in an instance of the distributed database (4), by said transferor operator (1), by means of an information traffic processing subsystem designed for the historicization and archiving of received data, i.e. a data acquisition and normalization platform; ii) identification of the receiving operator-subject (3), among those authorized to operate on the peer network (2) and indication of the date and time of expected delivery; iii) acceptance (6) of said electronically labeled pallets (5), also called epallets, by recording on said distributed database (4) by the receiving operator (3) of the delivery of said epallets (5), designed to aggregate the acquired data normalized on a time basis at regular intervals indicating the archived information; iv) encrypted subscription (7) of the receiving operator (3) of the successful delivery of said epallets (5), in which said subscription (7) is implemented with private key digital signature, only after the successful delivery, specified by the transferring operator (1) referred to in phase i); v) geographic localization using a GPS locator designed to detect the geographic coordinates of the position of the pallet. 2. Method according to claim 1, wherein the acceptance (6) upon receipt of said electronically labeled pallets (5) ? implemented by an automatic computational module, of the smart contract type, called certifier (12), placed inside the computer program (11), connected to the peer network (2), via a suitable transmission device (10). 3. Method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein in the notification sent via said network (2) to the receiving operator (3), during the transmission phase (6), any reference of the transferring operator (1) is omitted. 4. Method according to one of the preceding claims, comprising, prior to the transmission step (6), an optional step of encrypting the data loaded on the distributed database (4), wherein the enabling step (7) also includes an enabling of a user node (1) to decrypt the data, automatically or in response to a request from the receiving operator (3) to identify the pallets (5) delivered, after a given time interval. 5. Method according to one of the preceding claims, wherein, during the acceptance phase (6) of the receiving operator (3) upon receipt of said electronically labeled pallets (5), said certifying smart-contract verifies the correspondence of the data of the? enabled user with the data relating to the receiving operator (3) recorded in the loading phase (5) by the transferring operator (1). 6. Method according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the distributed database (4) is configured to implement a permissioned blockchain, and in which ? an additional authentication phase (5a) is foreseen, which constitutes a necessary condition to allow the transferring operator (1) to carry out the loading (5). The method according to claim 6, wherein the handover mechanism delivers via the network (2) ? programmed to implement, on said distributed database (4), a space dedicated to receiving operators, in which said receiving operator (3) can? view the notifications addressed to him, even before the physical delivery of the pallets takes place (5). 8. Distributed database (4) equipped with a schema configured to implement a method according to one or more? of the preceding claims, comprising a physical memory (8) suitable for storing the data of each transferring operator (1), the electronically labeled pallets loaded by each transferring operator (1) during the loading phase (5), and the data of each operator receiver (3). 9. Computer program, comprising a sequence of instructions in machine code, configured so as to implement all the steps of the method according to claim 1.