RFID inventory management for rapid deployment of first responder teams

• Main Author: Nur Syahida Bte Akasah.
• Other Authors: Yong Chuen-Tze, Mark
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Computer science and engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/55080
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology has been developed for many years and has been advancing since the 1960s. RFID technology is commonly known for business and companies that are tracking their assets. The main advantage of this technology is the capability to track items from a distance and not having to be physically there and read the item. This project will demonstrate the use of RFID technology in the inventory management for rapid deployment of first responder teams. The focus of this project was to build an interactive inventory system that uses the RFID readers to identify the inventories efficiently. Building the hardware reader is not part of the requirement of this project. The project uses the ID-20 RFID reader, which is a low frequency reader to capture the data from the tags. With the application of RFID readers in this system, it reduces the response time of the responder teams as the inventories can be read from afar. In addition, the inventories do not need to be unloaded from boxes in order to read the information. This application will allow the users to view the items that have been captured by reading the tags, thus displaying them. The application has a component where users can manage their inventory via a web interface. Apart from the development of the application, this project also covers a study on the RFID readers, which identifies the characteristics and profile of the ID-20 RFID readers through a series of experiment. The purpose of this study is to improve the use of RFID readers in the application. Since the readers that were used in the project are low frequency readers and they have limitations, there is a need to make alternatives to overcome these limitations. One of the main limitations is the ability to read more than one tags at once. Therefore, the project will use multiple readers so the application will be able to read more than one tags at once. However, multiple readers will result in radio wave collisions. The study of the readers includes discussion on the distance on how far apart the readers have to be placed, so the collision can be prevented and avoided. Although this project is developed based on the inventory management for responder teams, it can also be reused for different users and systems that use RFID technology. The database has to be modified to store the appropriate inventory information. Through the use of this application, it is hoped that it can change the traditional way of deployment and managing inventories for the responder teams. By using the application, it is hoped to help in ensuring that the items in their vehicles such as ambulance are sufficient before deployment, and in return, reducing the response time.