Sophisticated checking process for RFID technology
 

Leibniz Universität Hannover's Institute of Transport and Automation Technology provides exhaustive robustness and system reliability tests

RFID is the shape of things to come; this wireless technology to identify objects is attaining widespread acceptance for industrial applications. Any discussion of RFID will, however, raise questions of its safety and reliability - just one wrong reading could set off a vast and unpredictable chain reaction. In logistics, for example, the trouble and expense of relocating a mislaid parcel would be enormous.

The Institute of Transport and Automation Technology (ITA) at the Leibniz Universität Hannover's Faculty of Mechanical Engineering is therefore carrying out wide-ranging investigations into the readability of transponders and their mechanical robustness with sophisticated testing technology; one issue is how fast a transponder can pass a reading station and still be legible. In practice this is important when packages on a conveyor belt are passing a stationary reader ‘gate’; the transponder is within the reading field of the gate for a short period and all its information must be read in this time. Experiments can be carried out at relative speeds of up to 100 kph.

The Institute, which also has its own RFID transponder manufacturing facility, is also investigating how manufacturing processes and the age of RFID transponders affect their efficiency. The constant objective is to ensure that RFID technology is reliable enough for a broad range of industrial applications.

Meldung vom 05.11.2008