Intelligent Laundry Sorting System for Rest Homes

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rose Davies ◽  
Lindsay Brazendale
Keyword(s):  
Radio Frequency Identification ◽  
Conveyor Belt ◽  
Identification Rate ◽  
Care Givers ◽  
Receiver System ◽  
Endurance Testing ◽  
Intensity Of Care ◽  
Sorting System ◽  
Drying Conditions ◽  
Time Required

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) and mechatronic technology has been applied to a laundry sorting system which can potentially be used by rest homes in the future to reduce the labour intensity of care givers, to increase the efficiency of laundry sorting, and to reduce the chance of garments being lost. A laboratory laundry identifying and sorting conveyor belt has been built. Several different types of RFID labels/tags have been considered and tested. A type of small RFID laundry tag, suitable for the laundry sorting conditions of a rest home, has been selected. The laundry tags have undergone endurance testing under actual washing and drying conditions with typical commercial laundry chemical products used in rest homes. There was a major challenge using commercial RFID tags in the proposed intelligent laundry sorting system due limitations in their antenna and signal receiving systems. A strategy to coordinate the orientations of the tags, range of the antenna, and the amplification of signal receiving units has been investigated. Several antenna designs to improve the identification rate have been tested and analysed for the selected small laundry tags, since the tag-receiver system has to work beyond the recommended range. A programme for signal detection and processing has been produced. The programme has taken into consideration the speed of the conveyor belt, antenna receiving range and the time required to process signals. It works with satisfactory precision at a satisfactory speed. A sorting strategy for implementation after laundry garment identification has been investigated. This strategy considers aspects of simplicity, multifunction and compactness of mechanical structure. A virtual sorting system has been produced to test the principles of the sorting strategy and the antenna design. The results of these tests will help us to move to the next stage, the design of a prototype laundry sorting system.

Smart library book sorting application with intelligence computer vision technology

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaohua Shi ◽  
Kaicheng Tang ◽  
Hongtao Lu
Keyword(s):  
Deep Learning ◽  
Radio Frequency Identification ◽  
Character Recognition ◽  
Optical Character Recognition ◽  
Conveyor Belt ◽  
Identification Algorithm ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Library Book ◽  
Blurred Image ◽  
Sorting System

PurposeBook sorting system is one of specific application in smart library scenarios, and it now has been widely used in most libraries based on RFID (radio-frequency identification devices) technology. Book identification processing is one of the core parts of a book sorting system, and the efficiency and accuracy of book identification are extremely critical to all libraries. In this paper, the authors propose a new image recognition method to identify books in libraries based on barcode decoding together with deep learning optical character recognition (OCR) and describe its application in library book identification processing.Design/methodology/approachThe identification process relies on recognition of the images or videos of the book cover moving on a conveyor belt. Barcode is printed on or attached to the surface of each book. Deep learning OCR program is applied to improve the accuracy of recognition, especially when the barcode is blurred or faded. The approach the authors proposed is robust with high accuracy and good performance, even though input pictures are not in high resolution and the book covers are not always vertical.FindingsThe proposed method with deep learning OCR achieves best accuracy in different vertical, skewed and blurred image conditions.Research limitations/implicationsMethods that the authors proposed need to cooperate and practice in different book sorting machine.Social implicationsThe authors collected more than 500 books from a library. These photos display the cover of more than 100 randomly picked books with backgrounds in different colors, each of which has about five different pictures captured from variety angles. The proposed method combines traditional barcode identification algorithm with the authors’ modification to locate and deskew the image. And deep learning OCR is involved to enhance the accuracy when the barcode is blurred or partly faded. Book sorting system design based on this method will also be introduced.Originality/valueExperiment demonstrates that the accuracy of the proposed method is high in real-time test and achieves good accuracy even when the barcode is blurred. Deep learning is very effective in analyzing image content, and a corresponding series of methods have been formed in video content understanding, which can be a greater advantage and play a role in the application scene of intelligent library.

scholarly journals Identification of surgical instruments using UHF-RFID technology

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 318-321
Author(s):  
Mohamed Bourouah ◽  
Vadim Goridko ◽  
Dietmar Schumacher ◽  
Hermann Scheithauer ◽  
Stephan Knappmann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Radio Frequency Identification ◽  
Phase Shifter ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
Medical Instrument ◽  
Conveyor Belt ◽  
Phase Shifters ◽  
Surgical Instruments ◽  
Rfid Technology ◽  
Uhf Rfid ◽  
Identification Rate

AbstractThe paper presents research, development and advantage of Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) technology based system for medical instrument management and safe usage. The system is developed for two scenarios. In the first scenario, a Ultra High Frequency (UHF) is used and the UHF–interrogator system with UHF-antennas is constructed to work as conveyor-belt and instruments are placed between two antennas. Second scenario, suitable for the operating rooms, includes four antennas, placed under the table with instruments, system’s phase shifter, inserted between the antenna and reader in order to reduce the effect of dead spots, caused by the electromagnetic reflections. High reliable identification rate is achieved by synchronizing phase shifters with particular interrogator. The system is software calibrated and can be re-calibrated at run-time to achieve high efficiency of power transmission to the antenna and in order to enable the receiver to decode the tag signals. With currently on the market available RFID tags and previously mentioned technology approaches, detection rate of 87.5% can be achieved.

scholarly journals Design and Fabrication of Automatic Sorting Machine using Arduino

2020 ◽  
pp. 85-90
Author(s):  
Kadole Pavan Prabhakar ◽  
Choudhury Rajat Kumar Pattnaik ◽  
Akash Kumar Nath ◽  
Aditya Dubey ◽  
KM Vishall Somaiya
Keyword(s):  
Embedded System ◽  
Human Error ◽  
Conveyor Belt ◽  
Conveyor System ◽  
Automatic Sorting ◽  
Manual Sorting ◽  
Ir Sensors ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Transport Line ◽  
Time Required

This work is based on Design of a transport line conveyor belt for sorting and arranging products based on their height using the IR sensors for detecting the object and mechanism to drive the conveyor belt. The project is locally controlled by the use of Arduino based embedded system. The automatic sorting and arranging machine are used to sort the different types of products based on the product height. This automation significantly reduces the time required for manual sorting in the production line of small/medium scale industries and hence it also decreases the percentage of human error during sorting/arranging. The products are placed on the transport line conveyor system and as it moves on the conveyor it is scanned by the IR sensor, depending on the height of the product these will be sorted into different bins automatically.

scholarly journals Vision-Based Sorting Systems for Transparent Plastic Granulate

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 4269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tadej Peršak ◽  
Branka Viltužnik ◽  
Jernej Hernavs ◽  
Simon Klančnik
Keyword(s):  
Vision System ◽  
Type System ◽  
Conveyor Belt ◽  
Air Separation ◽  
K Nearest Neighbors ◽  
Transparent Plastic ◽  
Food Industries ◽  
Granulate Material ◽  
Particle Localization ◽  
Sorting System

Granulate material sorting is a mature and well-developed topic, due to its presence in various fields, such as the recycling, mining, and food industries. However, sorting can be improved, and artificial intelligence has been used for this purpose. This paper presents the development of an efficient sorting system for transparent polycarbonate plastic granulate, based on machine vision and air separation technology. The developed belt-type system is composed of a transparent conveyor with an integrated vision camera to detect defects in passing granulates. The vision system incorporates an industrial camera and backlight illumination. Individual particle localization and classification with the k-Nearest Neighbors algorithm were performed to determine the positions and conditions of each particle. Particles with defects are further separated pneumatically as they fall from the conveyor belt. Furthermore, an experiment was conducted whereby the combined performances of our sorting machine and classification method were evaluated. The results show that the developed system exhibits promising separation capabilities, despite numerous challenges accompanying the transparent granulate material.

Experimental Study of the Operation Conditions of Stability on a Gamma Stirling Engine

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Houda Hachem ◽  
Ramla Gheith ◽  
Fethi Aloui ◽  
Sassi Ben Nasrallah
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Study ◽  
Rotational Speed ◽  
Heat Engine ◽  
Industrial Process ◽  
Stirling Engine ◽  
Load Pressure ◽  
Operation Conditions ◽  
Receiver System ◽  
Power Load ◽  
Time Required

Considering Stirling engines modern applications and cogeneration recovery energy from industrial process, the power of a Stirling prime mover is to be provided at a speed of rotation adapted to the operation of the receiver system (usually a generator) to exploit the performance of this machine under the conditions of its use (ie lowering of the rotational speed and torque transmitted rise or, more rarely, elevated speed and lowering the torque transmitted). Knowing that the hot air engine cannot change speed quickly and in order to have a well designed system, it is important to study the unsteady state conditions. In this work we present an experimental stability analysis of an irreversible heat engine working at different conditions. The experimental study aims at analyzing the effect of working parameters disruption on the stability of the Gamma Stirling engine. Parameters involved in this experimental study are the load pressure of the motor and the load applied to the Stirling engine. The influence of engine operating parameters on its torque and rotational speed is investigated. The time required by a gamma type Stirling engine to stabilize operation after disruption is estimated. Results show that after a small disruption, speed and temperature evolutions decays exponentially to the steady state determined by a relaxation time. It is assumed that the decrease of the applied power load to the engine or the increase of the load pressure leads to a speed up. And that the increase of the applied power load to the engine or the decrease of the load pressure leads to a speed down.

scholarly journals A Mobility Aware Binary Tree Algorithm to Resolve RFID Jam and Bottleneck Problems in a Next Generation Specimen Management System

Micromachines ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 755
Author(s):  
Yen-Hung Chen ◽  
Yen-An Chen ◽  
Shu-Rong Huang
Keyword(s):  
Radio Frequency Identification ◽  
Binary Tree ◽  
Arrival Rate ◽  
Tag Identification ◽  
Coverage Area ◽  
Tree Algorithm ◽  
Clinical Laboratories ◽  
Conveyor Belts ◽  
Time Required ◽  
Specimen Management

Hospitals are continuously working to reduce delayed analysis and specimen errors during transfers from testing stations to clinical laboratories. Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags, which provide automated specimen labeling and tracking, have been proposed as a solution to specimen management that reduces human resource costs and analytic delays. Conventional RFID solutions, however, confront the problem of traffic jams and bottlenecks on the conveyor belts that connect testing stations with clinical laboratories. This mainly results from methods which assume that the arrival rate of specimens to laboratory RFID readers is fixed/stable, which is unsuitable and impractical in the real world. Previous RFID algorithms have attempted to minimize the time required for tag identification without taking the dynamic arrival rates of specimens into account. Therefore, we propose a novel RFID anti-collision algorithm called the Mobility Aware Binary Tree Algorithm (MABT), which can be used to improve the identification of dynamic tags within the reader’s coverage area and limited dwell time.

Use of the global positioning system to measure the out-of-home mobility of older adults with differing cognitive functioning

2011 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 849-869 ◽  
Author(s):  
NOAM SHOVAL ◽  
HANS-WERNER WAHL ◽  
GAIL AUSLANDER ◽  
MICHAL ISAACSON ◽  
FRANK OSWALD ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Elderly People ◽  
Global Positioning System ◽  
Radio Frequency Identification ◽  
Family Care ◽  
Positioning System ◽  
Mobility Patterns ◽  
Care Givers ◽  
Global Positioning ◽  
Frequency Identification

ABSTRACTCognitive impairment manifests in changed out-of-home mobility. Until recently, the assessment of outdoor mobility relied on the reports of family care-givers and institutional staff and used observational approaches, activity monitoring or behavioural checklists. This article presents data for 41 mildly demented, mildly cognitively impaired and healthy men and women aged 64–90 years in Tel-Aviv (Israel) who took part in an interdisciplinary project, SenTra, that is studying the outdoor activities of elderly people using advanced tracking technologies and that involves researchers from geography, social work, gerontology, psychology and medicine. The participants were tracked for 28 consecutive days using a location kit that combined a global positioning system (GPS) with radio frequency identification. The high-resolution spatial and temporal data enabled detailed analysis of the differences in the timing and distance of the participants' daily outdoor mobility patterns. It was found that the spatial range of the mobility of elderly people with cognitive impairment is severely restricted, with most out-of-home time spent in close proximity to their residences. We conclude that GPS is an advanced research tool able to understand out-of-home behaviour better than was possible with previous methods.

scholarly journals Comparison of beef traceability in serial and parallel fabrication systems using RFID and two-dimensional barcodes1

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
T P Foster ◽  
J P Schweihofer ◽  
D L Grooms ◽  
R H Clarke ◽  
D D Buskirk
Keyword(s):  
Radio Frequency Identification ◽  
Two Dimensional ◽  
Fabrication Method ◽  
Mobile Computer ◽  
Total Cost ◽  
Traceability System ◽  
Animal Identification ◽  
Frequency Identification ◽  
System Requirements ◽  
Time Required

Abstract Traceability of beef attributes from small- and mid-sized farms through supply chains is a market barrier. The objective of this trial was to determine the influence of fabrication method on beef traceability system requirements. Individual identities of 54 animals were maintained through harvest, processing, packaging, and distribution. At harvest, each animal’s unique radio frequency identification (RFID) animal identification number was transferred to a harvest label on each carcass quarter. Following transportation to a processor, nine carcasses were processed on alternating days by one of the two methods. Carcasses were fabricated, using a serial fabrication method (SFM), into wholesale cuts one at a time or fabricated using a parallel fabrication method (PFM), by processing multiple hindquarters or forequarters simultaneously into wholesale cuts. In-process labels were generated by scanning the two-dimensional (2D) barcode on the harvest label with a handheld mobile computer and printed from a wireless mobile printer. Tracking of SFM and PFM carcass quarters was accomplished by creating in-process labels for lugs and individual wholesale cuts, respectively. The process was recorded and the data was captured from video analysis. The mean number of in-process labels generated per carcass for SFM was 3.7 and for PFM was 30.9 (P < 0.01). The amount of time required for generating in-process labels for SFM (2 min 16 s) was less than PFM (8 min 45 s) (P = 0.01). The amount of time required to label each carcass was less (P < 0.01) for SFM (18 s) than for PFM (3 min 10 s) with in-process labels. Total cost of traceability, including fixed and consumable cost per carcass, was nearly twice as much for PFM ($17.98) than SFM ($9.02). Traceability, within both processing methods, was found to have 100% fidelity, as verified using DNA marker genotyping. Overall, the number of labels generated for traceability was less for SFM than that for PFM. The overall time spent on generating, applying, and removing labels was less for SFM than that for PFM. The total cost of traceability was approximately half for SFM compared with that for PFM; however both methods were able to track product accurately. Tracking of beef from individual animals, using RFID ear tags and 2D barcodes, appears to be feasible for the fabrication methods used in this study.

scholarly journals Towards a Traceability System Based on RFID Technology to Check the Content of Pallets within Electronic Devices Supply Chain

2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ignacio Angulo ◽  
Asier Perallos ◽  
Leire Azpilicueta ◽  
Francisco Falcone ◽  
Unai Hernandez-Jayo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Radio Frequency Identification ◽  
Electronic Devices ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Rfid Technology ◽  
Layer System ◽  
Logistics Information System ◽  
Traceability System ◽  
Passive Tags ◽  
Communication Devices ◽  
Time Required

In the last few years there has been a growing interest in smart solutions capable of dealing with the traceability of products and materials to improve logistical processes. Most of the existing solutions have been designed without considering the difficulties of deploying traceability systems in the storehouses currently working, not dealing with specific needs, such as environment characteristics or time required to be handled by workers. In this paper, in order to test the viability of its application, a first prototype of a traceability system capable of checking the content of pallets loaded with electronic devices is presented. It is based on ultra-high frequency (UHF) radio frequency identification (RFID) technology using passive tags. A holistic approach has been adopted to design the system: it begins with a radioelectrical characterization of the environment where the check points will be implemented, continues with the integration of a set of data acquisition and wireless communication devices, and ends with a logistics information system able to provide final user services. The combination of physical layer analysis with a top layer system view can aid the planning as well as operational phase of this type of RFID system within a logistic chain.

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