RFID Solutions Research Articles

The Rise of Passive RFID RTLS Solutions in Industry 5.0.

In today's competitive landscape, manufacturing companies must embrace digital transformation. This study asserts that integrating Internet of Things (IoT) technologies for the deployment of real-time location systems (RTLS) is crucial for better monitoring of critical assets. Despite the challenge of selecting the right technology for specific needs from a wide range of indoor RTLS options, this study provides a solution to assist manufacturing companies in exploring and implementing IoT technologies for their RTLS needs. The current academic literature has not adequately addressed this industrial reality. This paper assesses the potential of Passive UHF RFID-RTLS in Industry 5.0, addressing the confusion caused by the emergence of new 'passive' RFID solutions that compete with established 'active' solutions. Our research aims to clarify the real-world performance of passive RTLS solutions and propose an updated classification of RTLS systems in the academic literature. We have thoroughly reviewed both the academic and industry literature to remain up to date with the latest market advancements. Passive UHF RFID has been proven to be a valuable addition to the RTLS domain, capable of addressing certain challenges. This has been demonstrated through the successful implementation in two industrial sites, each with different types of tagged objects.

Stronger together on the way to rapid RFID growth

The Fedrigoni Group, a global producer of speciality papers for luxury packaging and other creative applications, self-adhesive labels, graphic media for visual communication and RFID solutions, has acquired a significant stake in BoingTech. With the acquisition, the fifth this year, the group continues to diversify it´s premium product offering.

RFID and IoT Enabled Framework to Make Pune City an Eco-friendly Smart City

The increasing volume and complexity of waste associated with the modern economy pose a serious risk to ecosystems and human health. Due to the intensive increase in computation, Machine learning is popular. Intelligent solid waste management motivates the Swachh Bharat mission to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of astrapita Mahatma Gandhi. In the context of smart city development, an innovative means of implementing smart solid waste collection is to improve daily solid waste collection at the household level. An intelligent solid waste collection system will be implemented in the Smart City to improve solid waste collection. It is required to educate households about solid waste handling. Municipal Corporation can implement an innovative PPP model as part of an independent India campaign to motivate startup ntrepreneurs, which will generate jobs in India. The city of Pune is in a phase of intelligent urban mobility development to improve citizens’ living standards. Ensure safe traffic management, adequate water supply, smart amenities, and services such as the intelligent collection, transport, and processing of solid waste. RFID and IoT base IT solutions have the potential to develop sustainable, innovative technology to achieve 100% household collections and transportation and treatment of waste so that to minimize waste to send landfill side.

ЦИФРОВА ТРАНСФОРМАЦІЯ ТА РОЛЬ REID-РІШЕНЬ У РОЗВИТКУ ФАРМАЦЕВТИЧНОЇ ІНДУСТРІЇ

The global trend of modern development is digital transformation, which radically changes all spheres of life and creates the conditions for structural changes in the economic sphere. The article examines the role of modern IT solutions on the example of RFID technology in the development of supply, sales and consumption in pharmacy in the context of digital transformation of the economy. It is concluded that the acceleration of digitalisation and digital transformation of the pharmaceutical industry is due to the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, the digitalisation of the healthcare system with the participation of the state, and a change in the paradigm of pharmaceutical development and healthcare provision – the transition to customer focus, and then to personalisation and 'customer obsession'. It is established that digitalisation and the effective use of digital technologies in pharmacy require the development and improvement of appropriate IT solutions. It is established that one of these technologies is RFID. The RFID system can be successfully used at various stages of production, distribution and consumption of pharmaceutical products. The use of RFID solutions will improve the supply chain; provide multiple ways to track and manage a large volume of products at each stage of their life cycle; strengthen the security of the supply chain, business processes and the protection of conference and personal information; improve the quality of customer service to patients by minimising additional costs and delays, errors in treatment and medication; expand the capabilities and accuracy of business intelligence and forecasting, etc. It is determined that the prospects for the development of RFID technologies in pharmacy are linked to their combination with digital technologies, in particular cloud technologies, big data management, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, etc. Keywords: digital transformation, digital economy, pharmaceutical industry, IT technologies, RFID, supply and distribution system, business processes, business models, customer focus, personification, 'customer obsession'.

Library on-shelf book segmentation and recognition based on deep visual features

On-shelf book segmentation and recognition are crucial steps in library inventory management and daily operation. In this paper, a detailed investigation of related work is conducted. RFID and barcode-based solutions suffer from expensive hardware facilities and long-term maintenance. Digital Image processing and OCR techniques are flawed due to a lack of accuracy and robustness. On this basis, we propose a visual and non-character system utilizing deep learning methods to accomplish on-shelf book segmentation and recognition tasks. Firstly, book spine masks are extracted from the image of on-shelf books by instance segmentation model, followed by affine transformation to rectangle images. Secondly, a spine feature encoder is trained to learn the deep visual features of spine images. Finally, the book inventory search space is constructed and the similarity metric between spine visual representations is calculated to recognize the target book identity. To train the models we collect high-resolution datasets of 10k-level and develop a data annotation software accordingly. For validation, we design simulated scenarios of recognizing 3.6k IDs from 5.6k book spines and achieve a best top1 accuracy of 99.18% and top5 accuracy of 99.91%. Furthermore, we develop a prototype of a mobile library management robot with embedded edge intelligence. It can automatically perform on-shelf book image capturing, spine segmentation and recognition, and target book grasping workflow.

Selected Aspects of Modelling RFID Systems in Supply Chains

Abstract The article presents the technical and organizational assumptions of RFID implementation in selected elements of supply chains, especially in warehouses, transhipment, and terminal facilities. A method of quantifying RFID technology has been proposed. On this basis, the structure of a mathematical model was submitted to evaluate selected performance indicators of RFID solutions in logistics facilities.

Design and Testing of an Epidermal RFID Mechanism in a Smart Indoor Human Tracking System

With the growing of human security concerns globally, high demand of technology is needed for enhancing people’s security. The rapid advancement in RFID technology offers an auspicious future to people with robust location tracking for a wide variety of indoor applications, ensuring safer commutes and better monitoring. It can be used to minimize the kidnapping rate predominantly in developing countries where medical professionals are threatened for ransoms. Thus, various RFID solutions have been tested in a number of human tracking systems. However, these solutions are suffered from either being vanished, used by prohibited users or getting damaged as well as systems on the limitations of interfaces, scalability, security or privacy concerns. Therefore, an extensive approach is proposed in this study to evaluate the suitability of epidermal RFID tags (implanted under the skin) in a smart indoor human tracking system. A certified model was produced that aimed to enhance humans’ safety by enabling them to obtain IDs using UHF passive RFID tags with regulated frequency of 868 MHz in developing countries. This study mostly emphasized on chip and antenna essentials such as released power gain, polarization, and read distance in order to assess the efficiency of RFID tags on their appropriateness for epidermal applications in human security. The results showed that the simulated tag had a high transmission rate with a corresponding factor of $\boldsymbol {\gamma } =0$ :6, almost 1:57 dBi power gain, and a reading distance of nearly 4 meters was achieved that indicated the suitability of the tag for use in human tracking systems. The mechanism then being implemented to a smart indoor human tracking system with a user-friendly middleware that worked well and able to guarantee indoor human security.

Enhancement of ESD performances of Silicon Capacitors for RFID solutions

Abstract Radio-Frequency IDentification devices such as smart cards and RFID tags are based on the presence of a resonant tuned LC circuit associated to the RFID Integrated Circuit (IC). The use of discrete capacitor, external to the IC gives greater flexibility and design freedom. In the race of miniaturization, manufacturers of RFID devices always require smaller electronic components. To save space and in the same time improve performances, capacitors are exposed to height and volume constraints. In the same time, the capacitor has to withstand ESD stresses that can occur during the assembly of the device and during operation. Murata has developed a unique thin capacitor technology in silicon. This paper reports the development of a range of low profile capacitors with enhanced ESD performances. The manufacturing process optimization and the design adjustments will be presented here. The process was optimized by taking into account the main electrical parameters: leakage current, breakdown voltage, capacitance density, capacitance accuracy, Equivalent Series Resistance (ESR) and Self-Resonant Frequency (SRF). The dielectric stack was defined in order to integrate up to 330pF in 0402 case. The process architecture, based on accurate planar capacitor with thick dielectric will be discussed. With this architecture there is no constraint to reach low thickness, such as 100μm or even lower. The ESD threshold of each Silicon Capacitor was investigated with design variations associated to Human Body Model measurements. A Single Project Wafer (SPW) was founded with 36 different capacitor designs. Design modulations specifically addressed the orientation and position of the contacts openings. Special care was taken to maximize the width of the contact holes and metal tracks. A mosaic approach, constructed out of a massive network of parallelized elementary cells was also implemented, so that the charges of the ESD pulse do not concentrate at the same place, leading to electrical failure. Examples of defects due to ESD stress will be shown with failure analysis cross-sections and ways to enhance the ESD threshold by design will be illustrated.

Implementation of RFID Middleware Based on Client-Multiserver Architecture for Traceability of Autoparts

The implementation of RFID systems allows automation of information flow along the production chains. This is a desirable condition for increasing efficiency, productivity and management, and it simplifies other activities such as traceability records along these supply and production chains, especially in the automobile assembly supply chain as in the case of Renault-SOFASA-Colombia, where the traceability of automotive parts is realized manually by means of mobile terminals, which is time consuming and laborious, with low automotive parts rate and high error rate. In this work, a RFID solution for the traceability of automotive parts in real time in Renault-SOFASA-Colombia is implemented, where a middleware under client-multiserver architecture for Siemens readers is developed. The terminal, where the middleware is located, behaves like a client and links to several RFID readers which behave like servers, forming a star type network topology. This architecture allows a cost reduction in the implementation and operation of RFID solutions by reducing hardware acquisition and energy consumption, being an alternative that can compete with the solution provided by a manufacturer as Siemens without neglecting the robustness and the proper functioning of the system. Moreover, the proposed solution concentrates all the maintenance efforts of the system at a single point, which is due to the fact that a terminal attends all RFID portals. The tests performed, where the transport carts with the automotive parts and their respective RFID tags are passed through the RFID portals of the assembly plant, are in agreement with the results reported by the developed middleware.

Emerging Trends in ICTs and its impact on Organizational Innovation through Knowledge Management

Organizations have benefited immensely since the evolution of Knowledge Management (KM). While KM found its place among the business activities, it has been greatly acknowledged that it has created significant opportunities for innovation. Several articles are found in literature that discusses the role of KM in innovation. Most of the articles discuss how Information and Computer Technology (ICT) has been the driver of such contributions through KM. However, there are very few articles that present the innovation trends within the KM domain. The role of ICT is not limited to organizational innovation and has demonstrated its impact on innovation within KM. This article is an effort to present emerging trends focusing on organizational innovation through KM. Some of the prominent ones which will be dealt in detail are the utilization of social networks, incorporation of RFID solutions and the adaptation of cloud computing in KM.

An RFID Based Smartphone Proximity Absence Alert System

We present the design, implementation, and evaluation of an RFID-based cellphone anti-lost and anti-theft measure. The cellphone owner is given an audio-visual alert at the very instant of the lost event, and the cellphone deduces the fact that it is away from its owner and executes the safety measures. This is realized by equipping the cellphone with a low-power RFID Reader and tagging the owner with a passive RFID token to determine a private space around him, which spans within 2-10 feet. We prototype an RFID Reader from discrete components under $60 which can transmit 30 dBm with $-$ 78 dBm sensitivity, and can also serve as an educational tool for academic learning. Our system works on automatic, timed, or accelerometer based thresholds. We interface our system with Samsung Galaxy Note2 and develop an Android User Interface. We carry out extensive indoor and outdoor experiments under static and dynamic scenarios to ascertain the Frontal and Angular ranges, energy and power consumption, and memory and computational overheads. Our salient contribution is a twofold probing scheme—a duty cycle approach that economizes battery overhead, mitigates false alarms and scans the tag for multiple times by leveraging the interrogation time and power. We argue that though our design is costly in power budget, it is highly economical on battery energy because of short interrogation cycles. We show that for 17 tag interrogations from 20-24 dBm, our scheme consumes 72.1 to 52.4 percent lower energy than a single Bluetooth device scan. For a fully embedded design, we propose System-on-Chip RFID solutions. We foresee our endeavor as a viable proximity absence detection scheme for short range applications and scenarios.

A Fog Computing Framework for Blackberry Supply Chain Management

With the rapid proliferation of RFID systems in global supply chain management, tracking every object at the individual item level has led to the generation of enormous amount of data that will have to be stored and accessed quickly to make real time decisions. This is especially critical for perishable produce supply chain such as fruits and pharmaceuticals which have enormous value tied up in assets and may become worthless if they are not kept in precisely controlled and cool environments. While Cloud-based RFID solutions are deployed to monitor and track the products from manufacturer to retailer, we argue that Fog Computing is needed to bring efficiency and reduce the wastage experienced in the perishable produce supply chain. This paper investigates in-depth: (i) the application of fog computing in perishable produce supply chain management using blackberry fruit as a case study; and (ii) the data, compute and storage requirements for the fog nodes at each stage of the supply chain. In the process, we discuss the benefits of the proposed fog nodes with respect to monitoring and actuation in the blackberry supply chain.

Evaluating the Performance of Absolute RSSI Positioning Algorithm-Based Microzoning and RFID in Construction Materials Tracking

High accuracy of construction materials tracking with radio frequency identification technology (RFID) is challenging to achieve. The microzoning method consists essentially of an absolute received signal strength indication (RSSI) positioning algorithm on the basis of measuring the distance of tag from antennas base. In this paper, we analyse and examine the effects of microzoning method on the performance of RFID tags. A system was set up whereby RFID tags and antennas with the microzoning method were developed and studied. The performance of the tag antennas was studied with the practical read-range measurements. The study results showed that this absolute algorithm worked reliably and was suitable for RFID applications requiring identification of positions of onsite materials and components. The results also showed that the algorithm achieved a large read range and high accuracy. The study investigates the RFID solutions for Australian LNG (liquefied natural gas) industry and was initiated by the collaboration between Woodside Energy, Curtin University, and Industrial Automation Group Pty Ltd.

Wireless technologies for the construction sector—Requirements, energy and cost efficiencies

The construction sector has been rather reluctant with respect to the implementation of ITC innovations that other industries have adopted for years. One of the reasons could be the lack of services by the proposed innovations especially the RFID solutions. This technology is well-researched within the building sector and is therefore used to analyse requirements for alternative technologies. The motivation of the current work is to find upcoming technologies that bring improvements into the sector, for example improved life cycle costs and energy efficiencies, increasing quality, construction and operation efficiency and reducing faults and losses.The paper also lays out requirements expected by the sector. It will be shown that the wireless sensor network technology is a strong competitor that may meet the requirements. By analysing the application of such technologies throughout the building lifecycle, the utilization can be manifold, hereby minimising overall economic costs and maximising the added values for all involved stakeholders.Based on the expectations of the sector, the experiences with the introduction of the RFID technology and by estimating the applicability of the extra services that follow the wireless sensor network, the paper will line up the requirements that the new technology has to meet to be introduced successfully.

RFID tags for cryogenic applications: Experimental and numerical analysis of thermo-mechanical behaviour

RFID solutions will improve the traceability of biological samples stored at low temperature (77K) in biobanks. To achieve this goal, the reliability of RFID tags is essential. In this paper, we focus on the reliability aspect of RFID tags in harsh environment and more specifically to assembly design optimization through numerical simulations and accelerated life tests. A package-dimensioned model and a wire-interconnect centered model have been used to assess stress distribution in the package and wire bonds. We also develop a specific versatile test bench to apply thermal cycling while monitoring the functionality of the tags. We investigate three different tag configurations and demonstrate that the main failure mode is related to wire breaks. The occurrence of this failure depends mainly on the nature and thickness of the encapsulant resin which induce compressive and tensile stresses during thermal cycling. FEM results are in good agreement with observed failures.

Low Cost Augmented Reality and RFID Application for Logistics Items Visualization

One important component of the gross domestic product (GDP) is logistics services the quality and added value of which is growing due to the application of modern information and communication technologies and electronics. RFID use increases the performance of logistics items identification, however some errors, which could cause substantial damage and losses, remain. The amount of potential errors could be diminished by the additional checking of items using 3D visualisation. The authors researched the use of augmented reality for item visualisation in a warehouse combining AR and RFID solutions.

APDL: A reference XML schema for process-centered definition of RFID solutions

Despite the proliferation of RFID systems and applications, there is still no easy way to develop, integrate and deploy non-trivial RFID solutions. Indeed, the latter comprise various middleware modules (e.g., data collection and filtering, generation of business events, integration with enterprise applications), which must be deployed and configured independently. In this paper we introduce APDL (AspireRFID Process Description Language), an XML based specification for describing and configuring RFID solutions. Using APDL one can minimize the steps and effort required to integrate and configure an RFID solution, since it unifies all the configuration parameters and steps comprising an RFID deployment. APDL supports several configuration parameters defined in the scope of the EPCglobal architecture and related standards. However, it extends beyond the EPCglobal architecture, to a wider class of RFID solutions. Furthermore, APDL is amendable by visual tools, which obviates the need to carry out low-level programming tasks in order to deploy an RFID solution. These tools are also presented and evaluated in the paper.

A Universally Composable Secure RFID Communication Protocol in Supply Chains

Supply chain management is the major field for RFID application.However,little work has been conducted to address the security issues in this context.Existing RFID solutions cannot be applied directly in this field because of a set of special RFID security requirements to be addressed for supply chain management.The major contribution of this paper is to identify the unique set of security requirements for secure RFID communications in supply chains,propose a universally composable model that satisfies the security requirements,and design a lightweight protocol that realizes the universally composable model.This paper further defines the security requirement of unlinkability,and classifies the typical RFID protocols according to the security requirements.

Towards a single-chip, implantable RFID system: is a single-cell radio possible?

We present an overview of progress towards single-chip RFID solutions. To date heterogeneous integration has been appropriate for non-biological systems. However, for in-vivo sensors and even drug delivery systems, a small form factor is required. We discuss fundamental limits on the size of the form factor, the effect of the antenna, and propose a unified single-chip RFID solution appropriate for a broad range of biomedical in-vivo device applications, both current and future. Fundamental issues regarding the possibility of single cell RF radios to interface with biological function are discussed.

A METALLIC RFID TAG DESIGN FOR STEEL-BAR AND WIRE-ROD MANAGEMENT APPLICATION IN THE STEEL INDUSTRY

In recent years, RFID solutions are finding an increasing number of applications in a wide variety of industries. There are some natural limitations when applying RFID technology in the steel industry, because the tags do not function well in metallic environments. Even though some commercial RFID metal tags are available in the market, they are found to be too expensive by steel companies. This paper proposes a useful and practical RFID tag design for management applications involving steel-bar and wire- rod products manufactured by the steel industry. The dual-function metallic RFID tag, comprising of both an RFID code and a barcode, involves technology advancement in RFID design, and named Window- Tag (WinTag). The maximum read range of this tag can reach about 5.7 m for the radiated power of 4.0 W EIRP in free space. In the practical application, the maximum read ranges are about 2.3 m and 5.0 m for the worst and best case, respectively. The design methodology as well as simulation and measurement results of the WinTag are presented in this paper. The low profile and low cost features of the WinTag makes the RFID tag well suited for metallic type tag of labeling system that requires integration of RFID technology.