Management application of RFID equipment in automated yard

With the rapid development of information technology, port production and management technology has made great progress. The intelligent level of automated yard cranes in port yards has become an important label for improving port productivity. Customs in various places focus on modern scientific and technological means, strive to build a new convenient customs clearance model, and do a good job of management and service in the import and export links.

Among the global port yard crane equipment, tire cranes (hereinafter referred to as tire cranes) account for a large proportion, and rail cranes account for a small proportion. Therefore, the development of automated and intelligent green ports is inseparable from tire cranes. Similarly, the automation transformation of tire cranes will play a positive role in promoting the automation and intelligence of green ports and port machinery manufacturing companies. Under the current container information management standard conditions, combined with modern computer technology, modern electronic technology, software Engineering technology, database technology, and RFID technology, an efficient yard system with data collection, automatic equipment control, and automatic business processing at the automated yard entrance has been realized.

It is worth noting that RFID technology has its own particularity. It needs to comprehensively consider the characteristics of on-site machinery and operating environment, actual use needs, intelligent radio frequency technology implementation concept and overall operation function structure and other key links for planning and design. RFID equipment is used in conjunction with the gate system and integrated into the terminal yard management. It is designed and implemented based on the structure and function of the entire production operation system. It is independent of other operating subsystems in the port, but there are many interactions and associations. Finally, it provides the terminal with a complete function, advanced equipment, convenient operation, safe and reliable, and economical investment automation system integration solution.

System Design

The RFID Reader and gate system architecture configured at the entrance of the terminal automated yard is designed as a three-layer architecture. The design concept of the three-layer architecture is based on interface standardization, which fully meets the scalability of the system and the flexibility of the system composition.

1.1 System Design Concept

1. Provide a device connection framework (including RFID reader, vehicle detector, etc.) with standard interfaces for system software and hardware, provide raw data for the production management system, and take on the linkage control of the equipment. The system provides seamless integrated connection, and various devices can work normally and independently, or coordinate and link under the control of the system timing control logic.

2. Use modern advanced software engineering to provide information processing system architecture according to business processes and reasonably standardize data flows. At the same time, provide easy-to-use, user-friendly client operating systems. The design of the architecture complies with advancement, scalability, flexibility and standardization.

1.2 System Design Architecture

The structure of the intelligent yard RFID and gate system is a three-tier architecture design. The first layer is the client (user interface), which provides friendly access between users and the system; the second layer is the application server, which is responsible for the implementation of business logic; the third layer is the data server, which is responsible for the storage, access and optimization of data information. Since the business logic is extracted to the application server, the burden on the client is greatly reduced, so it is also called a thin client structure, as shown in the figure below.

1.3 System Architecture Advantages

The three-tier structure adds an application server to the traditional two-tier structure, and processes the application logic separately, so that the user interface and application logic are located on different platforms, and the communication protocol between the two is defined by the system itself. Such a structural design allows the application logic to be shared by all users, which is the biggest difference between two-tier application software and three-tier application software.

First, by dividing the entire system into different logical blocks, the cost of application system development and maintenance is greatly reduced. The three-tier structure separates the presentation part and the business logic part according to the client layer and the application server. The communication between the client and the application server, the application server and the database server, and the data exchange between heterogeneous platforms can be realized through middleware or related programs. When the business logic of the database or application server changes, the client does not need to change, and vice versa, which greatly improves the reusability of the system modules, shortens the development cycle, and reduces maintenance costs. Secondly, the scalability of the system is greatly enhanced. The modular system is easy to expand in both vertical and horizontal directions: on the one hand, the system can be upgraded to a larger and more powerful platform, and on the other hand, the scale can be appropriately increased to enhance the network application of the system. Because it is free from the limitations of system isomorphism, distributed data processing becomes possible.

1.4 System Architecture Implementation

The intelligent yard RFID automatic identification and gate system uses the identified vehicle information combined with the terminal operation management system to provide data comparison for the entry operation, dynamically provide operation information to the remote core control staff, and alarm and prompt various error information. For such a complex system, the adopted system design structure directly determines the stability, reliability, and practicality of the system. This system design adopts a three-layer software system architecture to balance the resource utilization of various hardware devices and related systems for the entire system, optimize system resources to the greatest extent, and make the system flexible, easy to use and maintain, stable in operation, and have good openness, flexible expansibility and hierarchical scalability.

System composition

The terminal automation RTG yard RFID system consists of three parts: RFID data acquisition system, RTG channel gate system, and exit gate system.

2.1 RFID data acquisition system

The RFID data acquisition system consists of electronic license plates, ultra-high frequency RFID readers, RFID Antennas, embedded hosts, electromagnetic induction coils, vehicle detectors, etc. In the yard, the RFID crossing weak current box equipment is installed on the metal pole of the crossing, the RFID antenna is installed on the door frame rod of the metal pole, and the RFID reader, industrial computer, network switch, vehicle detector and other equipment are installed in the equipment box, as shown in Figure 4. The RFID electronic tag is attached to the front windshield of the vehicle and the card reading is triggered by the crossing.

2.2 RTG channel gate system

When the RTG is transferred, the remote control center needs to know whether the RTG leaves or enters another yard. For this purpose, the RTG channel gate system is set up. After receiving the movement command, the security personnel are responsible for opening the RTG channel gate manually or through a wireless remote control. After all RTGs have passed and confirmed to be safe, they will manually or wirelessly remotely close the channel on site.

2.3 Vehicle exit gate system

The main function of the vehicle exit gate system is to restrict vehicles from entering the yard in the reverse direction. It consists of an exit gate, a vehicle detector, a network control, and a ground sensor coil. When the vehicle leaves and approaches the exit, the ground sensor of the lifting bar is triggered, and the gate lifts the bar to release it. After the vehicle leaves the channel and leaves the ground sensor of the lowering bar, the gate automatically lowers the bar. After the vehicle leaves the gate and lowers the bar, the gate system will send a vehicle departure signal to the remote control center in the port through the network controller, so that the background management system can count the vehicle operations. The gate does not lift the bar when the reverse vehicle enters the lowering bar ground sensor coil.

Implementation effect

After the functional debugging and testing of the terminal yard RFID and gate system were completed, 4 automated tire cranes were put into use in 2 yards. The performance of the yard RFID and gate system is stable, and the entire yard automation system is in good operation. The successful application of this system not only reduces the operating pressure of the operators of the automated tire crane remote control center, but also can clearly understand the situation of container trucks entering and leaving the yard. It makes the operation of the automated tire crane automatic dispatching system more reasonable.