Application of UHF RFID in airport automatic baggage sorting system

With the continuous deepening of domestic economic reform and opening up, the domestic civil aviation industry has achieved unprecedented development. The number of passengers entering and leaving the airport has continued to increase, and the luggage throughput has reached a new height. Baggage handling has always been a huge and complex task for large airports. In particular, the ongoing terrorist attacks on the aviation industry have also put forward higher requirements for baggage identification and tracking technology. How to manage mountains of luggage and effectively improve handling efficiency are important issues facing airlines.

1. Background

In order to cope with the new challenges posed by passenger luggage to the handling capacity of the airport transportation system, Xinwangcheng UHF RFID reading and writing modules and UHF RFID reading and writing equipment are being used by more and more airports in automatic baggage sorting systems. This system identifies passenger baggage through barcode labels. During the transportation process, the passenger baggage is sorted through recognition of the barcode. The baggage tracking system of global airlines has developed relatively maturely. However, even under the best circumstances, the barcode system can only correctly read 8 to 9 out of 10 pieces of baggage, which means that airlines have to A lot of time and effort is constantly invested in manual operations to transport sorted bags to different flights. At the same time, due to the high directionality requirements for barcode scanning, this also adds extra workload to airport staff when performing barcode packaging.

Simply using barcodes to match and sort baggage will be a task that requires a lot of time and energy, and may even cause serious delays in flights.

Improving the automation level and sorting accuracy of the airport's automatic baggage sorting system is of great significance to protecting public travel safety, reducing the work intensity of airport sorting personnel, and improving the overall operating efficiency of the airport.

RFID radio frequency identification technology is generally considered to be one of the technologies with the greatest development potential in the 21st century. It is a new technology that has caused changes in the field of automatic identification after barcode technology. Its non-line-of-sight, long-distance, low requirement for directionality, and fast and accurate wireless communication capabilities are increasingly being focused on automatic airport baggage sorting systems. Finally, in October 2005, IATA (International Air Transport Association) unanimously passed a resolution to use UHF (Ultra High Frequency) RFID strap-on tags as the only standard for air luggage tags.

2. System architecture

The RFID automatic baggage sorting system attaches RFID electronic tags to each aircraft passenger's randomly checked luggage. The electronic tag records the passenger's personal information, departure port, arrival port, flight number, parking space, departure time and other information; baggage flow Electronic tag reading and writing equipment is installed on each control node, such as the sorting, loading and baggage claim areas. When baggage with tagged information passes through each node, the RFID Reader will read the information and transmit it to the database. Realize information sharing and monitoring of baggage throughout the transportation process.

3. System process

Passengers departing from the airport check in their baggage at the departure check-in counter. The staff completes the check-in registration and prints the RFID baggage tag based on the passenger's boarding pass. The RFID baggage tag is installed on the baggage and placed into the baggage conveyor. The conveyor is equipped with an RFID collection channel. When baggage passes through the RFID collection channel, its relevant information is collected and uploaded to the conveyor control system. The conveyor control system can correctly sort the baggage to the corresponding flight based on the obtained information. Luggage compartment slot. Finally, the porter transfers the luggage of the corresponding flight to the suitcase and the aircraft cargo hold on the tractor.

The airport automatic baggage sorting system uses RFID technology to identify baggage through electronic tags and use radio frequency signals to automatically identify target baggage. Even multiple high-speed moving baggage objects can be identified simultaneously without manual intervention, making the operation quick and convenient. The mechanization rate using RFID technology can reach more than 95%, which means that the possibility of luggage loss, late shipment, and mishandling will be greatly reduced technically. At the same time, RFID can work in various harsh environments. This can enhance the safety of passengers' luggage and greatly reduce the error rate and other problems.

In addition, each RFID reader can be connected to the server through the network, and can effectively record, track and monitor all aspects of baggage check-in until it is finally delivered to passengers, grasp the entire process in a timely manner, and manage it dynamically, so that managers can fully Based on this statistical data and checking the situation of each link, targeted management can be achieved, and the informatization and intelligence of airport luggage check-in management can be improved as a whole.

4. System key technologies

The automatic aviation baggage sorting system should aim at achieving maximum efficiency, safety, reliability, and ease of maintenance. In the entire system, RFID data collection is particularly critical.

High-speed data collection

In order to meet the increasing number of passenger luggage at airports, especially in large and medium-sized airports, the transmission speed of conveyors is becoming increasingly high. Higher transmission speeds have higher requirements on the collection speed of RFID readers;

Stability

The aviation airport baggage automatic sorting system operates continuously 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and the RFID equipment must meet the stable operation in this environment.

Reliability

The baggage sorting system must accurately obtain the information of each piece of luggage in order to correctly complete the sorting. This requires the RFID equipment to have very high reliability and accurately collect the information of each piece of luggage;

  compatibility

The core control part of the automatic baggage sorting system generally uses PLC. In order to achieve the purpose of high-speed and accurate sorting, how the PLC obtains the data collected by the RFID device is also very critical, which requires that the RFID device must be compatible with the PLC. RFID devices that support instruction set control can be well compatible with PLC.

5. Product selection

Based on the requirements of the airport automatic baggage sorting system for RFID equipment, this system equipment selection adopts an integrated ultra-high frequency RFID reader.