Projects - OSU Connection One

RFID Tags for Container Tracking

Principal

John Volakis, Professor, The Ohio State University

Investigators:

Satish Bukkapatnam, Associate Professor, Oklahoma State University

1. With over tens of thousands of containers arriving each day at ports, effective examination and monitoring of their integrity is central to secure and efficient operation of global end-to-end supply chains for our nation’s infrastructural and lifeline assets. Recent advances in wireless sensing and RFID promise to provide effective means for a comprehensive monitoring of transport containers and their contents. Nevertheless, several challenges need be addressed for widespread application of RFID tags (both passive as well as sensor tags) for large scale system-wide tracking and monitoring. Among them are:

Unobtrusive placement of RFID tags in small available spaces of containerized packages and items, requiring highly miniaturized tags (especially the antenna)
Power systems and protocols need be developed to enable high data transfer rates (especially for monitoring applications)
Reliable operation of the RFID networking in presence of various obstructions and under different environment need to be evaluated.

Data analysis methods are also necessary to manage often highly contaminated and feeble signals.

This project will enable the development of a high throughput miniature RFID sensor tag for deployment in cargo condition monitoring (movement, temperature, tampering, etc.). In addition, a robust container monitoring system using these tags will also be developed. Various antenna miniaturization methods are being examined to find the best design since there are a variety of tradeoffs between size, bandwidth, pattern coverage, and platform sensitivity. These include the use of metamaterials, magnetic dielectrics, and novel geometric configurations to reduce the resonant frequency of the antenna. We will investigate deployment and benchmarking of the miniature wireless vibration sensor nodes so that optimal throughputs as well as signal fidelity can be realized for container monitoring applications using multihop connectivity among the miniature tags on the container pallets and packages, and exterior larger tags that have access to nearby commercial cell tower networks.

2. Company Sponsor:

3. Project Funding Level: $50,000

4. Principle Investigator(s):


Prof. John L. Volakis volakis@ece.osu.edu	Prof. Satish Bukkapatnam Satish.t.Bukkapatnam@okstate.edu
ElectroScience Laboratory Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering The Ohio State University	School of Industrial Engineering and Managment Oklahoma State University

5. Student Information:
Mr. Kenneth Browne will be working on this project. He obtained his B.S.E.C.E. Degree, magna cum laude, in 2005 from The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, the M.S. Degree in 2007 from The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio and is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree. He has been with The Ohio State University ElectroScience Laboratory (ESL) since 2003 as a student research assistant. He is also the President of The Ohio State University Radar Club. His primary research interests include radar, antenna miniaturization utilizing meta-materials, propagation, RFID tags, and design optimization.