National Science Foundation
Satish Kukkapatnam, Venkatesh Sarangan
Oklahoma State University
09/01/07
08/31/09
This research aims to develop miniaturized RFID tags (passive and sensor that are essentially transponders) for high throughput sensing of the container’s history, stability and integrity.
With ConnectionOne at Ohio State University: With over tens of thousands of containers arriving each day at the ports, effective examination and monitoring of their integrity is central for security and efficient operation of global end-to-end supply chains as well as the nation’s infrastructural and lifeline assets. The recent advances in wireless sensing and RFID promise to provide effective means for such comprehensive monitoring of containers. However the following challenges need to be addressed for widespread application of RFID tags (both passive as well as sensor tags) for large scale system-wide tracking and monitoring:
1. Unobtrusive placement in small available spaces of containerized packages and items, which requires highly miniaturized tags (especially the antenna)
2. Power systems and protocols need to be developed enable high data transfer rates (especially for monitoring applications)
3. Reliability when operating under difference environments and in presence of various obstructions need to be evaluated
4. Data analysis methods are necessary to manage often highly contaminated and feeble signals
Resulted in a small footprint a wireless sensor device/ active RFID micro tag capable of transferring sensory data sampled at rates as high as 6520 Hz with a goodput of 42 kbps. We believe that this device provides a good platform for realizing applications such as container integrity monitoring and pipeline integrity monitoring in a cost effective fashion. We plan to continue our research and advance the device/protocol architectures to achieve further improvements in a multi-hop setting.