An Action Classification Method for Forklift Monitoring in Industry 4.0 Scenarios

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.

Effects of the FR 4 Substrate Realized in a Circularly Polarized UHF-RFID Reader Antenna with Fractal Geometry for Enhancing Parameters

The proposed RFID reader antenna progressed with perfect electric conductor (PEC) as the radiating element and FR 4 as the substrate to achieve circular polarization, enhancement in bandwidth, and read range. The design presents a CPW feed RFID antenna for near-field reading applications, between the range of 903 MHz to 929 MHz. The operating frequency of the proposed design is 900 MHz, axial ratio of the model is less than 3 dB, impedance bandwidth is 256 MHz, and axial bandwidth is 36 MHz, proving to be adequate for near-field RFID reader applications such as item-level tagging and smart shelf. The proposed antenna model is realized with fractal structure to achieve miniaturization. The developed antenna is optimized using EM software for numerical analysis. The designed antenna is fabricated, and the prototype is characterized in terms of dielectric constant and loss tangent. The obtained results indicate high correlation with simulation results.

A Novel Method for Cluster Detection of RFID-Tags using Multilinear Polarized Antenna

Product identification using barcodes has gained good astounding, especially at the point of sale, where different products are being scanned individually before making the payment receipt. These products when at the warehouse meets issues like individual scanning demands significant time and labor to be involved in the human error. Barcodes have been in a process of replacement by Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). RFID is a technology that enables data transfer wirelessly and provides several advantages over barcodes which mandatory requires line of sight. Much of the work has been done on RFID tag antenna design, but efficient reader antenna design has been a major need of the hour for big warehouses, that came across bulk data to manage on daily basis. RFID reader antennas are unable to focus their RF energy on a desired zone. This paper proposes a novel multi-linear polarized RFID reader antenna design that utilizes the RF energy efficiently to meet the bulk reading application that will help in managing the tagged stock for industrial application.