Passive Radio Frequency Identification Technology Research Articles

A Concise State-of-the-Art Review of Crack Monitoring Enabled by RFID Technology

Cracking is an important factor affecting the performance and life of large structures. In order to maximize personal safety and reduce costs, it is highly necessary to carry out research on crack monitoring technology. Sensors based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) antennas have the advantages of wireless and low cost, which makes them highly competitive in the field of structure health monitoring (SHM). Thus, this study systematically summarizes the research progress of crack monitoring based on RFID technology in recent years. Firstly, this study introduces the causes of cracks and the traditional monitoring methods. Further, this study summarizes several main RFID-based crack monitoring and detection methods, including crack monitoring based on chipless RFID technology, passive RFID technology, and ultra-high-frequency (UHF) RFID technology, including the implementation methods, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of those technologies. In addition, for RFID-based crack monitoring applications, the two most commonly used materials are concrete materials and metal materials, which are also illustrated in detail. In general, this study can provide technical support and a theoretical basis for crack monitoring and detection to ensure the safety of engineering structures.

Application of Passive RFID Technology

Passive Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging IoT technology that enables communication and data exchange between items through various sensors and devices. Sensor nodes do not require built-in batteries or other energy supply devices, but instead use external signals for operation. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is a simple and low-cost solution for the passive Internet of Things, suitable for scenarios that require simple tracking and monitoring of items. The sensor devices in this technology can be used for a long time interregional operation reduces maintenance costs and improves work efficiency. Therefore, it is a promising technology that can bring tremendous changes to various industries. In recent years, this technology has been widely applied in many fields, including logistics and supply chain management, industrial automation, intelligent agriculture, and health monitoring. This article elaborates on the practical application of the latest passive RFID technology, providing reference for more application scenarios in the future.

High Gain Passive UHF RFID Reader Antenna Using Novel FSS for Longer Read Range

Frequency Selective Surface (FSS) is widely used to enhance the gain of antenna & reduces Electromagnetic Interference (EMI). In this work, a novel Frequency Selective Surface (FSS) is designed, analyzed, and fabricated along with passive Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) reader antenna operating at global Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) for wireless RFID applications. The antenna & FSS sheet is fabricated on less costly FR4 substrate with resonant bandwidth of 860–960 MHz. The Fabry–Perot arrangement of FSS sheet with antenna increases the gain & directivity without modifying the antenna profile or increasing radiation patch size. The maximum measured gain is 9.8 dB & 7.2 dB with the Reflection coefficient (S11) of −35 dB & −15 dB at 910 MHz & 950 MHz respectively. The proposed antenna of dimension 40 mm by 40 mm is fabricated & tested for further experimental validation with measured read range longer than 8 m. The novelty in proposed work is integration of FSS with passive UHF RFID technology which can be effectively used in wireless RFID applications for improved read range, higher gain, lower power consumption & better immunity within the resonating band. The proposed antenna effectively isolates out-of-band frequencies from in-band frequencies over a required bandwidth reducing Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) for UHF RFID applications.

An RFID-based smart school attendance and monitoring system

In this paper, a smart attendance system for students attending school is proposed. The proposed attendance system is based on radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to facilitate automation and convenience. The proposed RFID attendance system (RFID-AS) should be used by school administration to ensure safety for students, as well as for grading and evaluation purposes. After careful study, passive RFID technology is selected to be used by the proposed system because of its reasonable cost. The main components of the system are an RFID tag, an RFID reader, Visual Studio [eXpressApp Framework (XAF) tool], and SQL Server to compare the data from the RFID tag with the students’ database to record attendance automatically. A graphical user interface (GUI) is developed using Visual Studio (XAF tool) to allow parents and school faculty to log in and browse the students’ records. Students will pass the classroom door, which will have an integrated RFID reader device to read their RFID. The paper discusses the design of the solution as well as the testing scenarios

An RFID-based Smart School Attendance and Monitoring System

In this paper, a smart attendance system for students attending school is proposed. The proposed attendance system is based on radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to facilitate automation and convenience. The proposed RFID attendance system (RFID-AS) should be used by school administration to ensure safety for students, as well as for grading and evaluation purposes. After careful study, passive RFID technology is selected to be used by the proposed system because of its reasonable cost. The main components of the system are an RFID tag, an RFID reader, Visual Studio [eXpressApp Framework (XAF) tool], and SQL Server to compare the data from the RFID tag with the students’ database to record attendance automatically. A graphical user interface (GUI) is developed using Visual Studio (XAF tool) to allow parents and school faculty to log in and browse the students’ records. Students will pass the classroom door, which will have an integrated RFID reader device to read their RFID. The paper discusses the design of the solution as well as the testing scenarios.

An Innovation in the Development of a Mobile Radio Model for a Dual-Band Transceiver in Wireless Cellular Communication

A modern telephone can only be used if it is a dual-band transceiver. Also, an indispensable condition is the availability of Internet access. Modern cell phones can only be used for their intended purpose: making calls. Due to the fact that the operating system is preinstalled on devices, the list of possibilities for gadgets could be expanded almost indefinitely. So you can even do a full-fledged dual-band transceiver from a cell phone. In this paper, an innovation in the development of mobile radio models dual-band transceivers in wireless cellular communication is proposed. For the dual-band transceiver in the phone to work, you need an Internet connection. Progress in the development of technologies for mobile networks does not stand still, and with each new standard and technology for mobile networks, new opportunities for using the network open up for end subscribers. It is based on packet voice data transmission called push-to-talk.

Low-Cost Active Monitoring of Attendance using Passive RFID Technology

In this paper, a smart attendance system for students attending schools is proposed. The proposed attendance system is based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to facilitate automation and convenience. The proposed RFID Attendance System (RFID-AS) should be used by school administration to ensure safety for students as well as using it for grading and evaluation purposes. After careful study, passive RFID technology is selected to be used by the proposed system for its reasonable cost. The main components of the system are an RFID tag, an RFID reader, Visual Studio (XAF Tool), and SQL Server to compare the data from the RFID tag with the students’ database to record attendance automatically. A Graphical User Interface (GUI) is developed using Visual Studio (XAF Tool) to allow parents and school faculty to log in and browse the students’ records. Students will pass the classroom door, which will have an integrated RFID reader device to read their RFID. The paper discusses the design of the solution as well as the testing scenarios.

Development of a Novel Railway Positioning System Using RFID Technology.

Currently, a number of positioning systems are in use to locate trains on the railway network; but these generally have limited precision. Thus, this paper focuses on testing and validating the suitability of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, for aligning vehicles to switch and crossing (S&C) positions on the railway network. This offers the possibility of accurately knowing the position of vehicles equipped with monitoring equipment, such as the network rail track recording vehicle (TRV), and aligning the data with reference to the locations of the S&C (and ideally to key elements within a particular S&C). The concept is to install two tags, one on the switch-toe sleeper and the second on the crossing-nose sleeper, with an RFID reader that will be installed underneath the vehicle. Thus, the key features of the S&C, the switch toe and crossing nose, will be considered as a definitive reference point for the inspection vehicle’s position. As a monitoring vehicle passes over a piece of S&C, the proposed positioning system will provide information about this S&C’s ID, which is stored inside the RFID tags and will indicate the S&C’s GPS coordinates. As part of the research in this paper, more than 400 tests have been performed to investigate two different RFID technologies, passive and semi-passive, tested in a variety of conditions: including different passage speeds, different distances between the RFID reader and the tags, and varied strength signal transmitted between the reader and the tags. Based on lab testing and analysis of the recorded data, it is concluded that passive RFID technology is the most suitable of the two technologies. The conclusions find that the proposed RFID-based solution can offer a more precise positioning solution to be a reference point for the train location within the network.

A Dynamic HMM-Based Real-Time Location Tracking System Utilizing UHF Passive RFID

In this paper, an indoor real-time location tracking system is proposed using ultra-high frequency passive radio frequency identification technology. A dynamic k nearest neighbor driven hidden Markov model is developed to track subsequent positions of moving objects by combining static localization with dynamic tracking. Statistically validated regression models are developed to relate the tags’ received signal strength indicator and distance, which are iteratively updated over time to accommodate environmental changes. These models are utilized to generate a fingerprint database, which is used by the dynamic k nearest neighbor to estimate the set of potential locations for targeted tagged objects. The probabilistic likelihoods of tags’ potential locations based on the current location and the received signal strength indicator(s) are used to construct the hidden Markov model’s transition and emission matrixes, respectively. Finally, the performance of the proposed framework is evaluated by a set of experiments given different factors, such as movement pattern and speed. Results reveal that our proposed framework can track objects with an average tracking error as low as 0.36m.

Performance Evaluation of Passive Tag to Tag Communications

In the context of the UHF (Ultra High Frequency) passive RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology, recent works have proposed a new paradigm demonstrating the possibility to perform short distance tag to tag (T2T) communications. This paper presents a study that focuses on the performance evaluation of T2T systems. Without loss of generality as to the methodology followed, dipole antennas are considered here (assumed ideal in the theoretical part, then printed for the rest of the study). The results obtained show that the modulation depth, which can be considered as an evaluation metric for the T2T systems, is strongly impacted by three main parameters: the switching impedances (here chosen as short-circuit and open-circuit); the geometrical configuration constituted by the two tag antennas forming the T2T system; and also, the position of the external source on which the backscatter communication relies. As the modulation depth is very sensitive to these three parameters, which are more or less directly related, it is very difficult to predict the communication quality for a given configuration. For example, when the two tags are in parallel and the source is symmetrically positioned, the modulation depth shows a decreasing trend by oscillating when the distance between the tags increases from <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0.1~\lambda $ </tex-math></inline-formula> to <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$1~\lambda $ </tex-math></inline-formula> ( <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\lambda $ </tex-math></inline-formula> being the wavelength): with values going from 70% to less than 5%. As a consequence, from a very complete set of scenarios considered, the presented study helps to illustrate and explain the interactions of these parameters and their impact on the modulation depth. And at the same time, the paper provides guidelines for defining the specifications of such a system based on quantified results. The set is completed by introducing the BER (Bit Error Rate) as an evaluation metric by considering then a more complete T2T system (for instance listener tag including a non-coherent envelope detector).

Rescue notification system with accurate location estimation for injuries in city Marathons

ABSTRACT This study proposes a simple location-based rescue request system for use in city marathons with large numbers of athletes. Instead of using passive radio frequency identification technology, the proposed system employs initiative Bluetooth low-energy communication technology. When an athlete is injured, they can immediately transmit a rescue request that contains their estimated location and the time of the injury. Upon receiving the rescue request, medical staff can respond rapidly. This study included three parts. First, the time required for a rescue team to receive a request from an injured athlete was estimated based on past international city marathon race records. Then, a software simulation was performed to extract the simplest transfer parameter requirements for system positioning. Finally, experimental samples were produced for field verification, and the rescue notification timing system was developed. This approach was found to successfully deliver 97.4%–99.9% of the athletes’ request messages within 3–4 min and maintains the error range of the rescue locations under 15 m. It is appropriate for use in city marathons owing to its simple structure, low weight, low cost, and need for only common commercial technologies that are ready for mass production.

Design of Attendance Recording System for Pilkades Participants Using Web-Based RFID (E-KTP)

The development of information technology has now been widely used to facilitate, accelerate, and streamline work. The recording system that is still being applied is a type of recording using a manual system using paper media and is inefficient when viewed from a time perspective, recapitulating attendance data and the accuracy or authenticity of the data presented. There is still a frequent habit of voting in the village head elections or not being present at the voting process. Contrary to these problems, this research has developed a recording system using RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology. RFID will use sensors to read data. The use of RFID which can make it easier for KPPS officers at TPS. The use of both active and passive RFID technology is able to help record and move data in KPPS, Use of RFID technology, data will be recorded only by passing through a sensor reader on the device, thus the attendance data present by pilkades participants will be stored automatically in storage. So that the attendance of election participants will be easier to do, faster and avoid human error or fraud in the absence of pilkades

Standards for Passive UHF RFID

Passive ultra-high frequency (UHF) radio frequency identification (RFID) technology has been widely adopted by retail and other industries for serialized item-level identification and data sharing. This article introduces the standards that support and define all procedures in various passive UHF RFID applications. Electronic Product Code (EPC) Radio-Frequency Identity Protocols Generation-2 UHF RFID Standard, or C1G2, is a foundational standard that defines the format, encoding, and procedures within the air interfaces of RFID systems. Low Level Reader Protocol provides a standard and portable interface between different applications and RFID readers from different vendors. The format and encoding of the EPC information are defined by the EPC Tag Data Standard, which enables each tag to be uniquely identified (e.g., item-level identity of many goods in a warehouse). Additional protocols, such as Discovery, Configuration and Initialization and Reader Management, specify and clarify more processes (e.g., the management of many readers) that can be deployed in various business applications. We provide a general introduction of passive UHF RFID technology standards and review each protocol's features and procedures.

Use of passive radio frequency identification technologies to monitor nest usage in the northern carmine bee-eater (Merops n. nubicus).

The use of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is common in animal-monitoring applications in the wild and in zoological and agricultural settings. RFID is used to track animals and to collect information about movements and other behaviors, as well as to automate or improve husbandry. Disney's Animal Kingdom® uses passive RFID technology to monitor nest usage by a breeding colony of northern carmine bee-eaters. We implemented RFID technologies in various equipment configurations, initially deploying low-frequency (LF) 125 kHz RFID and later changing to high-frequency (HF) 13.56 MHz RFID technology, to monitor breeding behavior in the flock. We installed antennas connected to RFID readers at the entrances of nest tunnels to detect RFID transponders attached to leg bands as birds entered and exited tunnels. Both LF-RFID and HF-RFID systems allowed the characterization of nest visitation, including the timing of nest activity, breeding pair formation, identification of egg-laying females, participation by nonresidents, and detection of nest disruptions. However, we collected a substantially larger volume of data using the increased bandwidth and polling speed inherent with HF-RFID, which permitted tag capture of multiple birds simultaneously and resulted in fewer missed nest visits in comparison to LF-RFID. Herein, we describe the evolution of the RFID setups used to monitor nest usage for more than 7 years, the types of data that can be gained using RFID at nests, and how we used these data to gain insights into carmine bee-eater breeding behavior and improve husbandry.

A Solution to Low Read Rate Problem in RFID Scattering Networks

High interference and low read rate have repeatedly been reported by radio frequency identification (RFID) consumers as the main drawback of passive RFID technology. We investigate a solution to this problem by employing low scattering antennas. We propose a new state of scattering state for RFID tags in that tags will switch to low scattering states to suppress their interference to an established and ongoing backscattering link between an RFID reader and a target tag. We evaluate the efficiency of our proposed solution by random deployment of tags in a network of ten antennas. We show that by using our proposed solution the read rate is 93.76% when the threshold of detecting signal at the reader is set to $0.75{\delta }$ where ${\delta }$ is the magnitude of the backscattered signal from the target antenna when it is alone in the field.

Exploitation of the nonlinearities in electromagnetic energy harvesting and passive UHF RFID

In this paper, some theoretical aspects and experimental results are discussed with the aim to provide supplementary dc energy to radio frequency identification (RFID) tags by exploiting the nonlinear nature of rectifier devices. Three nonlinear phenomena are treated: (i) the impedance power dependence, (ii) the harmonic production, and (iii) the dependence on the radio frequency waveform. The novelty of the work relies on proposing a double rectifier composite system in where the nonlinearity of each rectifier is exploited to enhance the global powering performance of the system. Using the passive RFID technology as a beacon for the implementation, the approach considers combining the internal rectifier circuit of a commercial RFID chip operating at 868 MHz with an external rectifier circuit operating at 2.17 GHz. The solution triggers in a composite system RFID tag-harvester integrated in a single-feed dual-band antenna. The experimental validation shows 5 dB of tag sensitivity enhancement when it is empowered by the external harvester. The enhanced sensitivity produces an increase in the theoretical reading range distance from 3.3 to 6.1 m.

A tracking system for laboratory mice to support medical researchers in behavioral analysis.

The behavioral analysis of laboratory mice plays a key role in several medical and scientific research areas, such as biology, toxicology, pharmacology, and so on. Important information on mice behavior and their reaction to a particular stimulus is deduced from a careful analysis of their movements. Moreover, behavioral analysis of genetically modified mice allows obtaining important information about particular genes, phenotypes or drug effects. The techniques commonly adopted to support such analysis have many limitations, which make the related systems particularly ineffective. Currently, the engineering community is working to explore innovative identification and sensing technologies to develop new tracking systems able to guarantee benefits to animals' behavior analysis. This work presents a tracking solution based on passive Radio Frequency Identification Technology (RFID) in Ultra High Frequency (UHF) band. Much emphasis is given to the software component of the system, based on a Web-oriented solution, able to process the raw tracking data coming from a hardware system, and offer 2D and 3D tracking information as well as reports and dashboards about mice behavior. The system has been widely tested using laboratory mice and compared with an automated video-tracking software (i.e., EthoVision). The obtained results have demonstrated the effectiveness and reliability of the proposed solution, which is able to correctly detect the events occurring in the animals' cage, and to offer a complete and user-friendly tool to support researchers in behavioral analysis of laboratory mice.

Radiofrequency Identification and Surface Acoustic Wave Technologies for Developing the Food Intelligent Packaging Concept

The food intelligent packaging (IP) technologies are reviewed with a particular emphasis on the possibilities of radiofrequency identification (RFID) and surface acoustic wave (SAW) technologies for developing the food IP concept. Passive RFID and SAW technologies are the more promising ones to achieve a food IP that can wirelessly communicate the food quality to the different agents of the food chain. However, some drawbacks and cost of these technologies are limiting their massive use in food IP. This is the reason why a lot of research works are being currently performed that focus on increasing functionality (e.g., enabling the tag antenna as a sensing device) and reducing costs of components and materials of these RFID and SAW systems. Furthermore, benefits can be also achieved by means of integrating the RFID, SAW, and other sensing technologies. The RFID and SAW technologies can be embedded in a wireless sensor network (WSN), and the corresponding tags and readers can build more intelligent networks by sharing the sensing, logic, and transmission capabilities of the sensor networks. The above two technologies can be integrated in two different ways: sensor-enabled tags—RFID or SAW (or RFID or SAW sensor tags)—and RFID and/or SAW-embedded WSN. The application of these technologies on secondary packages, as the paperboard packages, can dilute the costs of application on primary packaging and allow the massive use of these technologies in the food supply chain.

Automated Identification of Plywood Using Embedded Inkjet-Printed Passive UHF RFID Tags

The use of passive ultra high-frequency (UHF) radio frequency identification (RFID) integrated into plywood boards is proposed to enable the identification and tracking of individual plywood boards and end products of plywood. For the first time, tags are embeddable inside plywood by direct inkjet-printing tag antennas on pure birch veneer. The use of passive UHF RFID technology in the applications of plywood industry is discussed, two tag antenna designs for plywood are presented and the tag fabrication procedures are described. Furthermore, results from tag performance measurements performed in the authentic application environment as well as in anechoic conditions are presented and discussed. Measurements show that tags printed on veneer and embedded inside 2 mm thick plywood board exhibited theoretical read ranges from 7.9 to 10.1 meters. The read ranges obtained meet the demands of the plywood industry and offer reliable identification even in challenging environments.

Printing House Paper Reel Management: An RFID Enabled Information Rich Approach

In recent years the print industry has been facing constant and increasing competition from the double onslaught of the Internet and the proliferation of television channels. In order to survive as a viable industry, print enterprises must streamline and exploit up-to-date economizing measures. A key cost element in the print industry is paper, representing between 20% and 30% of total printing expenditures. Thus, any improvement in the operational efficiency of paper reel management has the potential of yielding considerable cost savings. It is in this context that we analyze the effect of enhancing the available paper reel supply chain information through the use of semi passive Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) technology. Focusing on the printing house, we develop both simulation models and formulas that forecast savings from having better information. Thereafter we implemented the system and compared the forecasts to actual savings. Using standard economic evaluation techniques we unequivocally show the economic imperative of introducing semi passive RFID technology. Even though this study was carried out in a specific printing house, we argue that its implications are far wider, affecting other industries.