Preventative Back-Tracking Methods using RFID technology

Transcription

1 1 Preventative Back-Tracking Methods using RFID technology Crystal Batts: Winston Salem State University, Ronique Young: Spelman College, ShaKari Frazier: Fort Valley State University Abstract Wireless sensor networks have the capability of controlling environmental and industrial environments. Accomplishing this task can be obtained by a component known as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). This particular technology has taken the place of most barcodes and has the power to be read meters away. They are easier to track using serial numbers, in parameters on a larger scale, and in an array of environments. This project showcases RFID tags in connection with the Arduino Uno, which in term can enhance the standard tracking system. Creating a simulated dump truck system and conducting a sequence of experiments displays how the RFID and its counterparts are the start of an evolution. Index Terms: Radio Frequency Identification (RFiD), Arduino Uno, RFiD Module, Servo, real-time search 1. INTRODUCTION Up until now, keep track of items was achieved by using barcodes and sometimes hand written lists. Methods such as this can be taxing and very difficult to maintain since the world is continuing to grow with people and the items we often need and take interest in, such as clothing, food, and various technological devices. As technology has progressed, a way to track items or people has upgraded to computer entries but even this method can be difficult because computers are prone to errors and potential crashes. A more efficient way of conducting this process would be using Radio Frequency Identification (RFto signify thatid). RFiD is more beneficial because the tracking method is much easier to manage and is more reliable. It can be used in correlation with the computer system, but also as a readily back-up system. Tracking systems are important aspects in health, transportation, manufacturing, and other areas of our society. Finally, a system such as this provides evidence of indiscretions or forgetful thoughts to companies when they are hypothetically accused of misplacing or not providing enough products. It can also be useful in education especially when tracking a student s classroom attendance for example. Since any electronic system is prone to accidents, it must be programmed and controlled in such a way that it overcomes these types of glitches. The problem we want to focus on is how robots communicate with one another, more specifically real time verses non-real time. Assuming that there are particular tasks of the robots including coverage, we want to make sure multiple robots are not covering that same area as the previous robot. Using the RFiD tags to signify that an area has been searched and does not have to be searched over again is the ultimate goal. Researchers would be interested in this type of research because it relates robots to animalistic aspects of everyday life. Without this research, another way allows robots to communicate using non-real time which is actually using real time or creating virtual simulation that the robots could work in. In turn, their correspondence will display their ability to handle their task loads. The current solution proves to not be enough simply because it only relates a particular type of robot (i.e. ant robots), rather than covering various alternatives of using different robots and/or additional parts that may improve communication. Coming up with an experimental design is the next step in this process. The experiment will showcase the good areas of this type of tracking and the areas in need of improvement. The idea of this design is similar to the lives of ants and how they communicate with one another. This is why the tags are so useful. The tag has a specific identification code that a robot will be able to recognize and then see that the particular location has been covered, thus communicating in real time.

2 2 This research is not using a typical ant robot; we are using the irobot Create to communicate with one another. While this project encompasses a plethora of information, this project does not focus on the navigation aspect of the robots task, which makes this research different from current research. tag is and what COMM PORT the shield is communicating from. Description of how the design will operate: -The RFiD tags ideally will replace the normal way of keeping track of items. The dump truck model will disperse the tags in which the identification number will be entered into the Realterm software. RFiD Evaluation Shield 2. SYSTEM OVERVIEW Servo Motor Computer System -The RFiD reader will be networked through the computer using the Realterm software through a serial port connection -When a tag is in the region that the Realterm recognizes, the tag will be read and transmit the signal to the reader. -The RFiD reader will read the tag and a green light will flicker to indicate that the tag is in the specified region. -Once the card is read, the tag number will appear on the screen. Each tag has its own specific number. -The tag should be read automatically -The Realterm software gathers all of the tags identification codes, and it will maintain a record of each tag that is in the specific region that the software recognizes. Figure 1: Overview of System Main components used for the system RFiD Cards (Tags) The tags are programmed using the Realterm software. The radio frequencies have identification codes that transmit the tag signal in fixed intervals. Each tag has its own identification code. Servo Motor The servo motor is used for the dump truck model. The dump truck model will be the way we use the tags when conducting experiments. Through circuit connections, the motor will be powered and disperse the tags in various locations to be potentially tracked. Computer Software The computer software (Real Term) is used to keep track of the tags identification code. It can tell us where the 3. TECHNICAL METHODOLOGY The sole purpose of the RFiD system is to make it capable for data to be transmitted through a mobile device (tag). The RFiD reader compiles this data according to the needs of the application at that particular time. The Break Down: - The tags are dispersed in a certain location via simulated dump truck system. - The tag within the specified region transmits its identification code to the radio frequency signal. - The antenna in that region processes the data and soon determines the proximity of tag in correlation to the RFiD reader. - The reader sends the data to the host computer in the area. - The presence of the tag is displayed on the (Real Term) software used to recognize the code information.

3 3 - The tags identification code is then stored. software on your computer. The open-source IDE can be downloaded for free for select operating systems. a. Tag b. RFID Module Figure 2: RFID Tag Figure 4: RFID Module (reader) You can use these for all sorts of identification and sensing applications. The tag also has 1K of data storage which can be read and written from a compatible device. The Mifare card is simply just a memory storage device, where the memory has certain security aspects that access control. They have limited power computationally. The tags are reliable and also affordable. Many of these tags are used for electronic wallets, access control, corporate ID cards, transportation and stadium ticketing. The RFID Module is a very important component in this project. This module communicates through UART or I2C interfaces. It has two general inputs and two general outputs as switches. In order for this device to operate fully, it will require an antenna or an evaluation board. c. RFID Evaluation Shield a. Arduino Uno Figure 5: RFID Evaluation Shield Figure 3: Arduino Uno The device above is a platform for the RFID Module. The layout is to be used for an Arduino. It can also be used an antenna for RFID Module as well. It has switches, LEDS, and resistors present on the board. 4. Related Work The figure above displays the Arduino Uno. Arduino is an open-source physical computing platform based on an i/o board and a development environment that implements the Processing/Wiring language. Arduino can be used to develop stand-alone interactive objects or can be connected to Previously researchers took ant robots to manipulate and essentially took advantage of the tolerance and parallelism. This research studied the behavior of the ant robots and used the same environment to see the reactions the robots had to covering the terrain. This approach does not look into

4 4 localization of the ant robot, which is an aspect that is needed. (Koenig, 2001). In return the research included two different search methods in real time that differ only in how the markings are updated that are received from the ant robot. The cover time of ant robots that use a real time method guaranteed to be polynomial in the number of locations (Koenig, 2001). One assumption was that this research includes limited sensing and computation capabilities that the ant robot had. Another assumption includes the theory that the markings the robots make and the time varies depending on the size of the terrain the ant robots are covering. The concluded solution does not solve the problem using non-real communication, instead it focuses on the amount of an area in a particular environment is covered. Other researchers try a very different approach to a similar problem. The terminology of multi-robot becomes an area of interest and turns into a theory known as swarm robotics. Multi-robot (swarm robotics) coordination is present by these researchers based on both coordinated navigation and task allocation methods (Baglieto, 2009). RFiD technology is also used in this research that serves the purpose of the base for coordination strategies. The idea is to have an environment that allows room for robust robot swarm to self-configure (Baglieto, 2009). With this experiment the researchers are relying on communication through networked robots. The robots are operated by users and do not move freely in an environment. The researchers have assumed quite a bit specifically dealing with the coordination strategies they have designed. Along with the coordination, the requirements for computational power are assumed to be low; which can become an issue. These assumptions can be proved incorrect if in fact the coordination strategies are obscured and the computational power rapidly increases and effects how the robots interact with one another. The experiment to this problem involved a coordination control algorithm and a distributed task allocation method (Baglieto, 2009). Both of these methods worked based on RFiD technology. 5. Actual Robot The physical robot is shown in Figure 6 (left). This robot is the main component of this experiment. The irobot Create is based off the Roomba simulation and was created by irobot. Figure 6: irobot Create The Create has a Cargo bay which contains a 25 pin port that can be used for digital and well as analog input and output. It also includes a serial port, which is where sensor data can be read and motor commands can be issued using the correct protocol. Any embedded computer that supports serial communications can be used as the control computer. It has 10 built-in demos that perform various preprogrammed behaviors and can be controlled via open interface commands. There is a fourth wheel attached to improve stability of larger loads. 6. The Approach The previous approaches were all great strategies, but they only hit certain aspects of RFiD technology. With this problem, there are unaddressed issues. One of the issues that seem stand out the most is the use of different robots and the focus to conduct experiments. Being that every device is designed differently means that every robot does not communicate and operate the same way. As seen in the related work, the experiments used different devices and each experiment focused on a subject specified by the research that they were conducting. Localization would be the new proposed approach as it would really concentrate on one robot communicating in real time and transmitting that information to other robots without being next like it would be in the multi-robot (swarm robotics) experiment. This new approach is formulated by the

5 5 idea of discovering a new aspect of RFiD technology where it would be able to communicate in not just one particular interface. It has not been successful in other approaches because of the simple fact that it has not been the central focus of every experiment this specific research area. Now that a new approach has been established, the next step is to design an experiment. This particular focus is one that is still fairly new and still has numerous amounts of glitches in the path leading to a concise conclusion. It is safe to say that this project is still in the baby stages of production. As for now the irobot Create will serve as a carrying model for the actual RFiD tags. The Arduino Uno will serve as the main component in controlling the information and communication of the tags in correlation with the other robots. The Uno will be directly connected to the RealTerm software, which houses all communication transmitted back and forth. Expectations are in conjunction with the initial goal. Once the goal has been reached, then new expectations, theories, and experiments will begin to take place. served as a visual of how the project would run, while providing detailed information about RFiD technology and its uses elsewhere. This project proves how important RFiD technology is and the how important it will become in every day aspects of life. References [1] Koeing Sven, Boleslaw Szymanski, and Yaxin Liu. Efficient and Inefficient Ant Coverage Methods. Annals of Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence 31.1 (2001): Print. [2] Baglieto, Marco, Giorgio Cannata, Francesco Capezio, Alberto Grosso, and Antonio Sgorbissa. AMulti-robot Coordination System Based on RFID Technology. Advanced Robotics (2009): 1-6. Print. [3] Svennebring Jonas, Koenig Sven, Building Terrain- Covering Ant Robots: A Feasibility Study Autonomous Robots (2004): Print. 7. Analysis This focus is a continuous work in progress. The data from this project is helpful because we uncovered some components that worked better with RFiD Shield and Module. The Arduino Lilypad was the initial device that was used to try and form a connection, but it was soon discovered that it was not as compatible as the Arduino Uno was. Although the Lilypad could possibly be used, it was not possible for this project. Discovering that the Module was able to be read was a huge step in the right direction for this project. The next thing to do would be to write on the tags so that the Module would be able to read and write the tags. Once this obstacle is conquered, the use of the irobot will be of easy use. End points such as this provide a place for future work, which is always good for research such as this. It will be of use to current researchers and future researchers. 8. Conclusion This paper describes the idea of localization and communication with robots in real time in efforts to prevent back tracking. There is a breakdown of its usefulness in the real world and its usefulness in the technological world. Since this an ongoing experiment, a concrete conclusion has not been drawn. This has an advantage because it provides a gate way to introduce other methods by different researchers. The idea of ant tracking and the breakdown of it in comparison to this project were explained. This previously researched approach was very useful because it was the most similar to the idea that we are trying prove. The experiments demonstrated in the related work will be helpful in the use of future work on this project. The devices used in this project