Design of an Automated Measuring System for RFID Transponders in Complex Environments

Abstract

As industry moves towards more flexible manufacturing processes the topics supply chain management and product tracking gain more and more importance. Identifying each product in the process not only by its type but also knowing its location and most important its current state of build is necessary to manage highly dynamic production processes. Using RFID (radio frequency identification) technology is a promising solution to this task. On the one hand, its main feature of enabling non-line visual identification using radio waves is of great benefit in such scenarios. On the other hand, these advantages also have corresponding disadvantages. Radio waves interfere heavily with certain materials like metal or liquids. For example, attaching RFID transponders to the various parts of a car and attempting to read these transponders during the assembly process, e.g. to monitor the production status, is a difficult challenge. In this paper, we propose an automated gate approach in combination with artificial intelligence to improve the read rate of RFID transponders inside of vehicles.