Impact of Position and Orientation of RFID Tags on Real Time Asset Tracking in a Supply Chain

Abstract

We studied the characteristics of four commercially available RFID tags such as their orientation on an asset and their position in a three dimensional real world environment to obtain comprehensive data to substantiate a baseline for the use of RFID technology in a diverse supply chain management setting. Using RFID tags manufactured by four different vendors and a GHz Transverse Electromagnetic (GTEM) cell, in which an approximately constant electromagnetic (EM) field was maintained, we characterized the tags based on horizontal and vertical orientation on a simulated asset. With these baseline characteristics determined, we moved two of the four tags through a real world environment in three dimensions using an industrial robotic system to determine the effect of asset position in relation to the reader on tag readability. Combining the data collected over these two studies, we provide a rich analysis of the feasibility of asset tracking in a real world supply chain, where there would likely be multiple tag types. We offer fine grained analyses of the tag types and make recommendations for diverse supply chain asset tracking.

Passive Radio-Frequency Identification Tag-Based Indoor Localization in Multi-Stacking Racks for Warehousing

“…The main advantages of active RFID are that the tag has a built-in power source and can store its own location information and then transmit it to the RFID reader. Therefore, active RFID-based localization systems (LSs) have been researched in terms of various applications [25][26][27][28][29][30]. The method involving the intensity of the signal is based on the principle that the intensity of the signal between the active tag and antenna becomes weaker as the distance between the tag and antenna increases.…”