An Action Classification Method for Forklift Monitoring in Industry 4.0 Scenarios

Abstract

The I-READ 4.0 project is aimed at developing an integrated and autonomous Cyber-Physical System for automatic management of very large warehouses with a high-stock rotation index. Thanks to a network of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) readers operating in the Ultra-High-Frequency (UHF) band, both fixed and mobile, it is possible to implement an efficient management of assets and forklifts operating in an indoor scenario. A key component to accomplish this goal is the UHF-RFID Smart Gate, which consists of a checkpoint infrastructure based on RFID technology to identify forklifts and their direction of transit. This paper presents the implementation of a UHF-RFID Smart Gate with a single reader antenna with asymmetrical deployment, thus allowing the correct action classification with reduced infrastructure complexity and cost. The action classification method exploits the signal phase backscattered by RFID tags placed on the forklifts. The performance and the method capabilities are demonstrated through an on-site demonstrator in a real warehouse.

Advanced Sensors and Systems Technologies for Indoor Positioning

“…The effective implementation of a UHF-RFID Smart Gate, an identification point placed at warehouse key points for forklift monitoring, is presented in [ 2 ]. The system is part of the I-READ 4.0 project aimed at developing an integrated and autonomous Cyber-Physical System for the automatic management of large warehouses with a high-stock rotation.…”

Towards a Digital Twin Warehouse through the Optimization of Internal Transport

“…For certain types of "stock keeping units" (SKUs), as in this case, it is one of the few existing storage options. It requires low investment and, above all, allows a high degree of layout flexibility and correct and reliable localization inside warehouses, for example, using RFID-equipped forklifts capable of recognizing loaded pallets and self-locating [24] or advanced methods of monitoring forklifts [25]. In this sense, internal transport becomes a possibility to improve warehouse management.…”

Evaluación de la Reducción de Tiempos en un Almacén Mediante un Sistema de Lectura Automática con Tecnología RFID

“…En este marco, algunos investigadores confirman que el uso de esta tecnología es de gran utilidad en bodegas y almacenes, pero con base a sus investigaciones, su uso conlleva mucho esfuerzo por parte del trabajador (Pérez López, 2015), (Sun, 2009). Por otra parte, algunos investigadores ven un gran potencial en el uso de IoT integrado en la cadena de suministro, poniendo como ejemplo su impacto usando una infraestructura con base en almacenes (Mostafa et al, 2019), en el monitoreo de maquinaria (Motroni et al, 2021) y su aplicación (Liu et al, 2019). También se observa que varios investigadores utilizan la tecnología RFID para su implementación en almacenes de una alta capacidad (Chen et al, 2018), (Fernández-Caramés et al, 2019), en el conteo del material (Barcik, 2019), y en la trazabilidad del material (Henao-Jaramillo et al, 2019).…”