Design of a mobile robot and use of RFID for fast were housing

Abstract

Radio Frequency Identification technology (RFID) has been used in the past for several applications. Automatic identification technologies like RFID have valuable uses, especially for tracking and identification purposes such as inventory management. RFID is particularly useful where it can be embedded within an object, such as a shipping container. RFID can be used where human accessibility is limited or dangerous. The Self-Locomotive Inventory Management, or SLIM, System is a multi-faceted system to perform remote inventory of a warehouse, car lot, or other asset storage location. The system is comprised of a remote controlled vehicle equipped with a 400 MHz Active RFID reader with the associated Active RFID asset tags to gather the inventory data, a PC-based Human-Machine-Interface (HMI) control and interface station to control the vehicle, and a PC based database and web server to store and present the collected inventory data. This paper represents the result of a senior design project which is a done as pilot project in collaboration with industry. The students who participated in this project learned new hardware and software tools and applied the math and science principles learned in previous year. This project is a true example of experiential learning. A mobile robot with wireless control has been built. The robot has the capability of identifying RFID tags for each item and finding the dedicated location of the item in the warehouse. The robot uses a tracking system for the inventory. Tracking system can collect data on daily basis and perform routines operations. This information can be used both for quality control as well as improving processes and logistics. This paper will describe: (1) Student participation (2) Construction of mobile robot, (3) the RFID technology used for identification of items, (4) tagging and storage strategy, (5) tracking system and (6) overall performance of the robot. © 2012 American Society for Engineering Education.