Streamline inventory counting with drones and RFID technology

As the warehouses and logistics transfer centers of some large companies become larger and larger, the corresponding inventory counting workload is also increasing. As the size of the inventory increases, RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) reading/scanning becomes a difficult task. Therefore, they are conducting some research and trying to use drones and RFID technology to carry out inventory counting.

Drone equipped with RFID Reader

Researchers at the company have developed a system that allows small, secure aerial drones to more accurately read radio frequency identification (RFID) tags from tens of meters away.

It was originally expected to revolutionize supply chain management through low-cost, battery-free designs of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, which receive energy from electromagnetic waves emitted by RFID readers/scanners and then use the received energy to broadcast RFID tags around them. With the unique identification number of the chip inside the electronic tag, RFID technology allows warehouse managers to manage inventory more efficiently.

In recent years, many retailers have reported that inventory record and inventory mismatches often cause them significant financial losses. The sheer scale of the modern Retail Industry makes RFID reading/scanning a difficult task.

According to incomplete statistics, the U.S. Army lost $7.8 billion (equivalent to RMB 54.6 billion) in supplies between its warehouses from 2015 to 2019. The National Retail Federation reported in 2019 that merchandise losses in retail Stores throughout the year were approximately US$45.2 billion (equivalent to RMB 316.4 billion). The above are only the losses caused by inventory in the United States. Similarly, in China, the value of goods lost by retail stores in Guangdong Province due to inventory management in 2019 was as high as 50.7 billion yuan. By using drones to be able to find and locate items and equipment, this research will provide an effective solution to these problems.

The company's researchers have tested small aerial drones, installed an RFID electronic tag reader on the drone, and then asked the drone to read the RFID tag from a distance of tens of meters. The final test results are : The average error in the position of the identification tag is approximately 19 cm.

Modern large-scale output storage center

Another issue that needs to be considered in this program is safety. The company's researchers used very small drones to prevent collision accidents to minimize risks, but this small drone is too small to carry more than Several centimeters of RFID readers, so the size of drones and RFID readers still needs to be studied and tested. The role of drones is becoming increasingly prominent in many applications, including RFID technology applications. For example: In a logging site, workers need to take inventory of the entire logging site. If drones are not used, the operator must go into the yard to read to obtain RFID readings of the entire yard. Usually the logging site is a large site. , manual entry and reading will take a lot of time and labor costs. However, with the help of drones, staff can read data over the field in a short time.

Large open-air warehouses rely on drones to achieve rapid inventory

To address the need to carry larger and heavier readers on drones, researchers have found a way to use drones to relay RFID reader signals so tags can be located more efficiently. We will continue to research and improve this solution that combines drones with RFID technology. We believe that this solution can be applied to complex warehousing environments in the near future.