Integrando a blockchain à cadeia de produção por meio de IoT: caso de uso da indústria do cacau.

Abstract

This dissertation presents the development of an innovative technological artifact that integrates Internet of Things (IoT) devices, blockchain technology, and a service-oriented middleware to enable the traceability and automated control of the fermentation and drying processes of fine cocoa. The work begins with a contextualization of the subject, followed by a conceptual and technical review of the fundamentals of IoT, consensus protocols used in blockchains, and architectural models that support the efficient integration of IoT and blockchain systems. Within this context, both functional and non-functional requirements are analyzed, particularly those enabling the adoption of blockchain solutions in computationally constrained environments, which are typical in IoT scenarios. Subsequently, the development of a service-oriented middleware is described. This middleware supports semantic interoperability through the use of ontologies and is designed to ensure compatibility among heterogeneous devices. It offers APIs based on the REST architectural style, which were adapted to emulate the behavior of SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) messages. This approach led to a significant reduction in message exchange and computational resource consumption. Additionally, the dissertation describes the distributed applications developed to configure and manage the control of fermentation and drying actions, supported by custom-designed IoT hardware specifically built for this purpose. The data captured by the sensors are pre-processed and forwarded to the middleware, which then records them in smart contracts deployed on the Ethereum blockchain, thus ensuring the process benefits from the inherent immutability, auditability, and reliability provided by blockchain technology. The thesis also presents a contextual overview of the cocoa-producing region of Southern Bahia, discussing the challenges and opportunities associated with the adoption of Agriculture 4.0 technologies. As part of the evaluation of the proposed solution, a proof of concept was developed, demonstrating key results such as computational resource savings, messaging efficiency, and reliability in data traceability. Finally, it is worth noting that beyond its applicability in the cocoa sector, the developed middleware has the potential to be extended to other domains, such as asset inventory control and water resource management, thus demonstrating the versatility and robustness of the proposed architecture.