Application Prospects of RFID Technology in the Logistics Industry

According to the trend, RFID technology will be widely used in the logistics industry. The significance of RFID is not only simple logistics tracking, but also can realize the whole chain from warehousing to logistics to consumption and anti-theft, improve the efficiency of the entire supply chain, and save the labor costs of code scanning personnel, cashiers, etc.

In the field of wireless communication, in addition to mainstream wireless technologies such as WIFI and Bluetooth, there are three important technologies that will play a pivotal role now or in the future, affecting our production and lifestyle.

The first is NFC technology, which has been widely used in our ID Cards, Access Control cards, bus cards, subway cards, bank cards and other aspects. The application of NFC technology saves the employment of ticket sellers, reduces change transactions, and makes the community more intelligent, making bank payments safer, more convenient and faster.

The second is UWB technology. This technology may not be well known, but when it comes to its application, everyone will understand that UWB is a directional ultra-wideband technology. Simply put, it allows devices to sense directionality.

The U1 chip in the iPhone 11 was first known to people. At first, everyone thought it was only used for the Airdrop function, which could give priority to identifying the aligned mobile phone for data transmission in a space with dense mobile phones (such as a conference room).

However, Apple's application areas are beyond people's imagination. Now they have applied this technology to AirTag. When the mobile phone is close to AirTag, the mobile phone will display the location of AirTag.

Another one is RFID.

What is RFID?

RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is a wireless radio frequency technology used to identify and track objects. Unlike NFC, RFID can achieve long-distance communication. RFID Readers and RFID tags can achieve one-to-one or one-to-many communication, while NFC only supports one-to-one communication to ensure the security of communication.

One of the earliest commercial applications of RFID is unmanned supermarkets. Before entering the unmanned supermarket, you need to scan the code or recognize the face. When leaving, you don't need to scan the goods one by one to pay, you can take them out and check out directly.

Through a variety of goods with RFID tags, through the RFID reader, it automatically identifies what the items are and how much they cost, and completes automatic checkout.

RFID is divided into ISO18000-6B, ISO18000-6C, ISO18000-TOTAL, passive Bluetooth technology, SAW RFID technology, etc. according to different communication protocols. However, the most widely used one is the ISO18000-6C RFID tag chip, which is also the only IoT chip category with sales of over 10 billion in the world.

Since RFID is mainly used for clothing supply chain management, some clothing brands such as Decathlon, Uniqlo, ZAZA, Walmart's footwear and clothing department, Heilan Home, etc. all use RFID to improve the management accuracy and efficiency of the supply chain.

Library-self-service-borrowing-and-returning-machine-source-manufacturer-UHF-touch-screen-borrowing-and-returning-machine.html target='_blank'>self-service scanning and cashiering in clothing Stores

Compared with barcodes, RFID has many advantages. First, RFID can identify multiple objects at the same time, while barcodes can only be read one by one, which requires manual operation of barcodes. Secondly, RFID can read data through external materials, while barcodes must be scanned directly by laser. In addition, RFID can identify individual objects, while barcodes can only identify the category of items.

Most importantly, RFID tags can store a lot of information, not only recording the inherent information of the item such as the name and packaging, but also the status of the item at any time, such as the status after leaving the factory, in transit, entering the warehouse, selling and delivering to the customer.

For example, when the clothes arrive at the warehouse, they will be packed in boxes and put on the conveyor belt. The system will automatically read the RFID tags on the clothes to confirm the inventory and type, and then use this information for packaging and sorting.

This "robot warehouse" can reduce manpower by 90% and can operate 24 hours a day, thus greatly reducing inventory costs.

The main problems of RFID at present

At present, there are two main problems with RFID technology. The first is the high cost, about 0.2 yuan per piece, while the cost of barcodes is only 0.05 yuan per piece. However, with the widespread application and expansion of RFID, as well as cost savings in logistics and manpower, this problem is expected to be solved.

Secondly, the biggest problem facing RFID is cross-reading and missed reading. Although one problem is solved, another problem often arises.

In the Logistics industry, the identification requirements of RFID are more stringent than those in the consumer field. Consumers usually buy a small amount of clothing, no more than ten pieces at most. When identifying, there are shielding objects around the clothing, and there is enough time for identification.

However, the logistics industry has higher requirements for speed, space and quantity. In the logistics scene, dozens or even hundreds of RFID tags need to be identified at the same time, which is much more difficult than the consumer field. At the same time, there are countless types of items in the logistics scene, and the dielectric constants and dielectric losses of these items are different. In addition, the shapes of the items and the locations where the labels are attached are also varied, and there are also a lot of metals and liquids.

According to data from various industries, the current RFID recognition accuracy is as follows:

The recognition and positioning accuracy of RFID tags in airline baggage is about 95%.

The recognition accuracy of clothing RFID tags on metal shelves is about 85%.

The inventory accuracy of RFID tags on solid pallets in large supermarket supply chain logistics is about 80%.

The inventory accuracy of product labels on unmanned supermarket shopping carts is only about 70%.

At present, improving the recognition accuracy of RFID requires further improvement of the performance of RFID tags and RFID readers to achieve better results. Take Cainiao as an example. They are working to improve the accuracy of RFID technology.

RFID tag applications are divided into logistics and retail fields.

In the logistics scenario, they developed a three-dimensional anti-liquid and anti-metal UHF RFID electronic tag.

This tag adopts a multi-stage capacitor loading and parallel inductive impedance matching network design to achieve very fine adjustment of the input impedance of the tag antenna, and can perform excellent performance in harsh environments such as high-loss materials, liquids and metals.

In the retail scenario, it can be subdivided into container type and dense type.

Container-type appliances use dipole-type electronic tags, which provide better reading distance and sensitivity at the same size. In general retail scenarios and dense reading application scenarios, Cainiao has developed an omnidirectional dense reading RFID electronic tag, which consists of a 50x30mm omnidirectional antenna and a fence structure. It has good environmental adaptability and can maintain good performance even when close to metal.

The design and technical improvements of these RFID tags make them of great application value in the logistics and retail fields. They can realize automatic identification and tracking, and improve logistics efficiency and accuracy. Whether in complex environments such as high-loss materials, liquids, metals, or in container-type and densely packed items, these RFID tags can provide reliable identification and positioning functions to support logistics and retail businesses.

Cainiao has developed various types of RFID readers and RFID reader antennas for RFID applications in different scenarios.

For conveyor belt applications, Cainiao has developed a slot reader antenna, which can be perfectly combined with the conveyor belt to achieve efficient reading and writing of RFID tags on items.

For channel door applications, Cainiao has developed a passive phased array reader antenna, which uses phased array technology to achieve omnidirectional reading and writing of RFID tags within the channel door range, providing a wider coverage range and higher reading and writing efficiency.

In addition, Cainiao has also developed an ultra-high-performance discrete component RFID reader with a receiving sensitivity of -94dBm.

By selecting appropriate RFID chips, readers and antennas for different scenarios, combined with improved recognition algorithms, the precision and accuracy of data have been greatly improved.

For example, in air parcel luggage, the recognition and positioning accuracy of RFID tags has increased from 95% to 99.5%;

In the inventory of clothing RFID tags on metal shelves, the recognition accuracy has increased from 85% to 99.3%;

In large supermarket supply chain logistics, the inventory accuracy of RFID tags on solid pallets has increased from 80% to 99.7%;

The inventory accuracy of RFID tags on flatbed trucks in home improvement logistics has increased from 80% to 99.4%.

The application prospects of RFID in the field of logistics

Current barcode recognition mainly relies on optical recognition, which requires manual scanning operation, and there are problems of human error and heavy workload. RFID technology can get rid of manual scanning, improve the precision, accuracy and efficiency of recognition, and greatly reduce operating costs.

RFID has a wide variety of application scenarios in logistics. For example, in the home improvement industry, large items such as furniture and bathroom fixtures are difficult to scan and identify by barcode or QR code due to their large size and weight, which results in the inability to accurately record logistics information and affects the logistics experience. RFID technology can accurately identify and track these large items, provide accurate logistics information, and improve the logistics experience.

Taking a typical provincial home improvement special line business as an example, the core pain point is how to accurately know what furniture is loaded on the large flatbed truck? Will a customer's set of furniture not be loaded on the truck, and will furniture sent to other destinations be loaded by mistake? These are all problems.

But with RFID, these problems can be easily solved.

In addition, in the construction scenarios of cargo stations such as airports, docks, and stations, the control requirements for construction period and materials are very strict. RFID technology can be applied to these scenarios to achieve accurate identification, positioning and status monitoring of materials, and improve the efficiency and accuracy of cargo management.

RFID can not only identify the identity of an object, but also its location and status, and realize fully automated management. An RFID tag can connect multiple links of an enterprise, such as logistics, positioning, security and payment, to realize all-round information flow and automated operation, and the cost is only the cost of the tag itself. Therefore, the application prospect of RFID technology in the field of logistics is very broad.

It can be foreseen that in the future, the logistics industry will adopt RFID technology more widely to realize the accurate recording and automated management of logistics information, and improve logistics efficiency and accuracy.