[attachment=12526]
RFID BASED RAILWAY PLATFORM TO DISPLAY THE EXACT POSITON OF COACH
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology already plays a major role in many areas. In business applications, for example, the idea of exact position of coach with RFID technology has been around for
some time now, especially for retailing. Current solutions, however, are designed to only identify coach of a particular trian which is sufficient for most of the envisioned for platform . For other uses, however, not only the identification, but also the exact position and orientation of coach would be
interesting, if not necessary. A good example are miniature war games, where the current game state usually depends on what objects are located where, and, in some cases, how these objects are oriented. In this project , we present an approach to determine the position and orientation of coach of a train.
We introduce the conceptual idea, as well as the technical realization based on the example of an augmented miniature war game. We then describe our findings so far and summarize our next steps.
INTRODUCTION TO RFID
Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is an automatic identification method, relying on storing and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags or transponders. The technology requires some extent of cooperation of an RFID reader and an RFID tag.
An RFID tag is an object that can be applied to or incorporated into a product, animal, or person for the purpose of identification and tracking using radio waves. Some tags can be read from several meters away and beyond the line of sight of the reader.
An RFID tag is an object that can be applied to or incorporated into a product, animal, or person for the purpose of identification and tracking using radio waves. Some tags can be read from several meters away and beyond the line of sight of the reader.
What is RFID?
A basic RFID system consists of three components:
a) An antenna or coil
b) A transceiver (with decoder)
c) A transponder (RF tag)
Electronically programmed with unique information. There are many different types of RFID systems out in the market. They are categorized according to there frequency ranges. Some of the most commonly used RFID kits are as follows:
1) Low-frequency (30 KHz to 500 KHz)
2) Mid-Frequency (900KHz to 1500MHz)
3) High Frequency (2.4GHz to 2.5GHz)
These frequency ranges mostly tell the RF ranges of the tags from low frequency tag ranging from 3m to 5m, mid-frequency ranging from 5m to 17m and high frequency ranging from 5ft to 90ft. The cost of the system is based according to there ranges with low-frequency system ranging from a few hundred dollars to a high-frequency system ranging somewhere near 5000 dollars.
How RFID Is Changing the Business Environment today
Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology has been in use for several decades to track and identify goods, assets and even living things. Recently, however, RFID has generated widespread corporate interest as a means to improve supply chain performance. Market activity has been exploding since Wal-Mart's June 2003 announcement that its top 100 suppliers must be RFID-compliant by January 2005. Mandates from Wal-Mart and the Department of Defense (DoD) are making many companies scramble to evaluate, select and implement solutions that will make them compliant with their customers' RFID requirements and additional retailers and other large supply chain channel masters are likely to follow suit.
COMPONENTS OF RFID
A basic RFID system consist of three components:
• An antenna or coil
• A transceiver (with decoder)
• A transponder (RF tag) electronically programmed with unique information
These are described below:
1. ANTENNA
The antenna emits radio signals to activate the tag and read and write data to it. Antennas are the conduits between the tag and the transceiver, which controls the system's data acquisition and communication. Antennas are available in a variety of shapes and sizes; they can be built into a door frame to receive tag data from persons or things passing through the door, or mounted on an interstate tollbooth to monitor traffic passing by on a freeway. The electromagnetic field produced by an antenna can be constantly present when multiple tags are expected continually. If constant interrogation is not required, a sensor device can activate the field.
Often the antenna is packaged with the transceiver and decoder to become a reader (a.k.a. interrogator), which can be configured either as a handheld or a fixed-mount device. The reader emits radio waves in ranges of anywhere from one inch to 100 feet or more, depending upon its power output and the radio frequency used. When an RFID tag passes through the electromagnetic zone, it detects the reader's activation signal. The reader decodes the data encoded in the tag's integrated circuit (silicon chip) and the data is passed to the host computer for processing.
2. TAGS (Transponders)
An RFID tag is comprised of a microchip containing identifying information and an antenna that transmits this data wirelessly to a reader. At its most basic, the chip will contain a serialized identifier, or license plate number, that uniquely identifies that item,
similar to the way many bar codes are used today. A key difference, however is that RFID tags have a higher data capacity than their bar code counterparts. This increases the options for the type of information that can be encoded on the tag, including the manufacturer, batch or lot number, weight, ownership, destination and history (such as the temperature range to which an item has been exposed). In fact, an unlimited list of other types of information can be stored on RFID tags, depending on application needs. An RFID tag can be placed on individual items, cases or pallets for identification purposes, as well as on fixed assets such as trailers, containers, totes, etc.
Tags come in a variety of types, with a variety of capabilities. Key variables include:
"Read-only" versus "read-write"
There are three options in terms of how data can be encoded on tags: (1) Read-only tags contain data such as a serialized tracking number, which is pre-written onto them by the tag manufacturer or distributor. These are generally the least expensive tags because they cannot have any additional information included as they move throughout the supply chain. Any updates to that information would have to be maintained in the application software that tracks SKU movement and activity. (2) "Write once" tags enable a user to write data to the tag one time in production or distribution processes. Again, this may include a serial number, but perhaps other data such as a lot or batch number. (3) Full "read-write" tags allow new data to be written to the tag as needed—and even written over the original data. Examples for the latter capability might include the time and date
of ownership transfer or updating the repair history of a fixed asset. While these are the most costly of the three tag types and are not practical for tracking inexpensive items, future standards for electronic product codes (EPC) appear to be headed in this direction.