Smart segregation of products

using IOT
Presenters:

Lokesh G P B181023PE
Krushnappan M B180471PE
Lipika S B180426PE
Hrithik D B181070PE
M S D Varaprasad B181003PE

Under the guidance of

Dr. R Manu
Department of Mechanical Engineering
National Institute of Technology Calicut-673601.
1
Contents

 Introduction
 Literature Review
 Synopsis
 Objectives
 Work done till last presentation
 Work done so far
 Conclusion
 References.

2
 Introduction
• Most of the logistics companies use manual sorting method to complete the
sorting work.
• With the increased species and large quantity of commodities, the sorting task
has become increasingly heavy.
• The sorting operation is the most complicated and the largest part of the
workload in distribution center.
• To replace manual sorting, many companies started using Bar code
technology.
• However, there is a major drawback in bar code technology.
• Bar-code and scanner must be aligned when scanning bar-codes which
increases intensity of work to labors.
• To overcome this short comings, RFID(Radio Frequency Identification System)
tag is used.

3
Literature Review

Author/ Year Title Journal/Conference Findings

Authors Name
Clarke et al. 2006 Radio Frequency Packaging This paper focuses in determining the
Identification (RFID) technology and relationship between different
Performance:The science product types and tag orientations on the
Effect of Tag readability of RFID tags on shipping
Orientation and containers in a palletload that is driven
Package Contents through a portal type reader.
Golding and 2007 Performance Review 1st International In this paper, a quantitative content analysis
Tennant of RFID in the Supply Workshop on RFID on the performance and reliability of RFID in
Chain Technology - the supply chain is performed.The factors
Concepts, that will be examined include tag location,
Applications, tag orientation sensitivity, read range, and
Challenges interference from metal and water

4
Literature Review(contd..)
Author/ Year Title Journal/ Findings
Authors Conference
Name
Kabadurmu 2012 Evaluation of operational International In this paper, a six-step testing methodology is used
s et al. factors affecting the RFID Journal of RF to determine the optimized levels (specific values) of
performance in cargo Technologies operational factors for an RFID applied conveyor
sorting operations system of cargo sorting operations,factors
considered are product type, tag position, and
conveyor speed.
Porter et al. 2004 A Standard Test Protocol Journal of In this paper, a test protocol was developed and
for Evaluation of Radio manufacturin validated with eight different radio frequency
Frequency Identification g systems identification (RFID)
Systems for Supply Chain systems.
Applications

Shangguan2013
Order Tracking for Proceedings The OTrack protocol is proposed to continually track
et al.
Luggage in Mobile RFID IEEE the order of tags using a model for recognising the
Systems INFOCOM transient crucial zone.

5
Literature Review(contd..)
Author/ Year Title Journal Name Findings
Authors
Qing and 2007 Proximity Effects of IEEE In this paper, the proximity effects of metallic
Chen Metallic Environments on Transactions on environments on the performance of high
High Frequency RFID antennas and frequency (HF) radio frequency identification
Reader Antenna: Study propagation. (RFID) reader antenna is studied.
and Applications

Yinshan and 2020 Research on IEEE 5th In this paper, the causes of the impact of liquids
Yan Environmental Factors Information and metals on the readability of
Affecting RFID Reading Technology and RFID system are studied and RFID tag antennas
Performance Mechatronics resistant to metal and liquids are designed using
Engineering high frequency structure
Conference simulator
Yogesh et 2013 RFID systems in International This paper aims to understand factors affecting the
al. libraries: An empirical Journal of use of RFID systems and user satisfaction in a
examination of factors Information library context by empirically testing relevant
affecting system use and Management constructs from DeLone and McLean’s IS Success
user satisfaction Model.

6
Literature Review(contd..)
Zhoa et al. 2017 Passive radio International To determine the zero-point moment when the
frequency Journal of item passes the radio frequency identification
identification sorting Distributed gateway, a relative motion model is used first.
for dense objects on Sensor The phase curve fitting is then used to derive the
high-speed conveyor Networks coarse-grained time and the conveyor belt's
belts associated speed.

7
Synopsis

• Statistical analysis is performed on RFID operational factors like product

type, tag position, and conveyor speed to determine the optimal operational
factors for single tag RFID applied conveyor system.

• Experimental analysis of RFID performance using trial and error method is

widely accepted, since the accuracy of analytical model are limited.

• Environmental Factors Affecting RFID Reading Performance can be

analyzed and develop an antenna accordingly.

• Transient critical region is found from a prepared model and a protocol is

proposed for ordering of tags. They determine the zero-point moment when
the item passes the radio frequency identification gateway.

8
Objective

• To design and develop RFID Based Product sorting system.

• To compare the barcode based system and RFID based conveyor sorting
system.

• Study the factors affecting the RFID System performance and perform Design
of Experiment(DOE) to optimize the system.

9
Work done before Start

last presentations
Motor on
Flow chart of operation

Conveyor Start

Reading RFID Tag

Item is push to
Servo motor Yes If
the respective
on matched
bin
No
Falls into the
dummy tray
for RFID tag
10
placement
 Work done before last presentations (contd..)
• Studied various means of product sorting or segregation methods.

• Ruled out Bar code scanning system.

• Designed a CAD model for the process to know about area requirement for set up.

Fig 1: Conceptual 3d model of conveyor designed in SolidWorks

11
Work done before last presentations(contd..)

Fig 2:Front view of 3d model

Fig 3:Right view of 3d model

Total space occupied by the setup to

carry out this operation is:
L=8.35m
B=3.31m
H=1.22m
Scale it down to 1/5th so l=1.67m
Fig 4:Top view of 3d model B=0.662m
H=0.244m
Space required =0.663
12
Work done before last presentations(contd..)
Hardware Structure
RFID
Tag
Actuator Actuator
motor

conveyor

Actuator
Reader

Computer Arduino
board

13
Work done before last presentations(contd..)
Circuit Diagram
• Developed the circuit diagram
for the project.
• The Circuito.io website is
used to develop this circuit
diagram.
• Components Required:
oStepper motor
oArduino board
oRfid reader
oRfid tag
oWIFI module
oRelay circuit
oBreadboard
oActuator Fig 5: Circuit Diagram

14
Work done before last presentation(contd..)
Cost Analysis
Table 1: Cost analysis of RFID vs Barcode system for a small scale company
FACTOR CONSIDERED RFID BARCODE
Price of a tag ₹ 4.50 ₹ 0.05
   
Average cost per product (Assume) ₹ 100.00 ₹ 100.00
 
 
Profit Percentage (Assume) 8% 8%
 
 
Profit ₹ 8.00 ₹ 8.00
 
   
Total Inventory (Assume) 50000 50000
     
Average time taken by RFID to read 1.48 3.55
   
Profit for the system ₹ 3.50 ₹ 7.95
 
 
Working Period in seconds 28800 28800
   
Total Quantity of product read 19436 8119
   
Total Profit ₹ 68,027.08 ₹ 64,548.28
   
Growth % 5.39%
 
15
Work done before last presentation(contd..)
Table 2: Cost analysis of RFID vs Barcode system in a large scale company.

FACTOR CONSIDERED RFID BARCODE

Price of a tag ₹ 4.50 ₹ 0.05
   
Average cost per product (Assume) ₹ 500.00 ₹ 500.00
 
 
Profit Percentage (Assume) 10% 10%
 
 
Profit ₹ 50.00 ₹ 50.00
 
   
Total Inventory (Assume) 50000 50000
     
Average time taken by RFID to read 1.48 3.55
   
Profit for the system ₹ 45.50 ₹ 49.95
   
Working Period in seconds 28800 28800
   
Total Quantity of product read 19436 8119
   
Total Profit ₹ 8,84,352.00 ₹ 4,05,558.05
   
Growth % 118.06%
 

16
Work done before last presentation(contd..)
Design of RFID reader
 In general, the recognition rate of RFID systems is
influenced by power, reading time and the directivity of
the RFID reader antenna, performance of the tag
antenna, and the speed of conveyor belt.
 When a fixed RFID antenna is used, the reading time is
reduced by increasing the speed of the conveyor belt.
 In a RFID conveyor belt gate system which must check
the quantity of materials, the speed of the conveyor
belt can seriously affect effective material Fig 6 :The RFID conveyor belt gate structure
proposed by EPCglobal. (Park , et al.,)
management.
 The conveyor belt speed recommended by EPC global
is 1 m/s and nearly 100% recognition rate is required
for commercializing a system.

17
Work done before last presentation(contd..)
When breadth of conveyor belt is > 1.5 m it is usually preferred to have more than
one tag reader.

Positions : Top, Bottom, Sides .

[Tag readers count can be 4 (or) 3 depending on the reading range required]

Height of the gate system : 1.25 m (industrial case)

For the modelling we consider the less velocity of the conveyor.

18
Work done before last presentation(contd..)

RF power of reader (from tag supplier) : 10 to 20 dBm

RFID tag dimensions : 85 x 12 mm [IndiaMart]
Tag type : passive and linear type antenna.
Fixed linear polarized antenna works best when the direction
of tags and beam pattern from RFID reader aligned in st.line.

Circularly polarized antenna is most suitable reader antenna

Fig 7: single circular polarized antenna on side of conveyor
Source : Century RFID Supply Chain Management solution

Miniaturization and stabilisation of antenna , use of single circular polarized antenna reader at the side of
conveyor.

19
Work done before last presentation(contd..)

Challenges faced in implementing RFID technology

Reliability of data
• The issues with RFID can be due to the following
1. Tag collision- Due to the presence of multiple RFID’s in a particular
reading range. The RFID’s could interfere each other.
2. Reader collision- Due to the presence of multiple reader in a same
reading range, there could be chance for two or more reader to read
the same tag.
3. False negative – when the reader can’t read the tag.
4. False positive- when the reader reads when they not alleged to read it.

20
Work done before last presentation(contd..)
Challenges Faced (contd)
RFID can be more costly
 But as the study on the cost and time analysis suggests, the growth
percentage in profit of rfid when compared to the barcode is very high. So
in a real time scenario and on long run projects, the challenge of cost can
be easily taken in control.
Trouble with metals and liquids
 The tag can be placed on the cardboard box to minimize the interference
from attaching material.
Tough-to-grasp technology
 Require skilled technicians to work as controllers.
Success aspect of RFID depends on-RF site survey, Installation and Tuning,
Reader synchronization, Cable management, Tag design and placement,
Device Management, Data management.
21
Work done before last presentation(contd..)
Database coding

Fig.8: Database coding

Database coding for the project is written with the help of SQLite3
Software is shown in Fig.8.
22
Work done before last presentation(contd..)
Python Coding

Fig. 9:Python Coding

23
Work done before last presentation(contd..)
Summary
• Studied the different types of conveyor and identified the suitable type required for
our project.
• Designed the flow chart of our process.
• Prepared methodology of project.
• Designed the circuit connections to integrate the motors, actuators and control
module.
• Studied the working of each components which are to be used in project.
• Programmed the code required for controller working and actuating task and shown
output.

24
Work done before last presentation(contd..)

• Simulation study has been performed.

• Cost analysis of barcode and RFID tag was computed.
• SQL database has been created for sorting operation.
• Coding required for this sorting task in done with the help of Python Software and
verified.
• Challenges faced is identified.

25
Work done so far

• RFID based conveyor sorting system can be used in courier service company.
The problem is how effective will the system be?
• What are the operational factors which affect the system?
• How to get the optimized parameters for the required application?

26
Work done so far(contd..)
Methodology
To determine the performance of RFID System of several parameters, a six
step methodology is used.

Defining
Defining the Determination
response
objective of factors
measure

Analysing the Running the Designing the

results experiment experiment

27
Work done so far(contd..)
(1) The objective is determination of the optimal operational factors for single tag
RFID applied conveyor system of a cargo sorting process.
(2) Experiments are conducted to measure the read redundancy of RFID tags.
(3) Three design parameters are selected: product type, tag position and conveyor
speed.
(4) Experiment design is carried out like number of levels, replications, etc.
(5) Experiment is conducted using simulation software to get performance
measure.
(6) The performance measure is analyzed using statistical software.

28
Work done so far(contd..)
Factors affecting the performance of RFID conveyor system:
• Material in package.
• Tag orientation.
• Conveyor speed.

Three levels in each factor is chosen.

Material :
 Metal
 Document
 Fluids

29
Work done so far(contd..)
Top
Tag position (Shown in Fig.10):
 Top
 Front
 Left Front

Conveyor Speed:
Left
 0.5 m/s

RF
I
 1 m/s

D
A
nt
en
na
 1.5m/s Fig.10 :Tag position

To know the effect of this factor on RFID system simulation is carried out

30
Work done so far(contd..)
Simulation model

• Simulation is performed using

FlexSim 2022 software.
• Simulation model is shown in Fig.11.
• The benefit of using this software is
we can use experimenter tool which
can be used to perform
experimentation to simulate different
scenarios.
Fig.11: Simulation model

31
Work done so far(contd..)
• The products come from source
with the given arrival schedule.
• The products is then processed in
processor station with given
process time.
• The products is then sent to sink.

Assumptions in the model:

• The product arrival schedule
follows exponential distribution
with 10 seconds time(Fig.12). Fig.12 : Source arrival schedule
• The processing time of the
processor is set to 10 seconds.

32
Work done so far(contd..)
• The model parameters of the simulation model are(shown in table 3):
Table 3:Model parameters
Materials Tag position Conveyor Speed
Docum 0.5 1.5
Metal Fluid ent Front Top Left m/s 1 m/s m/s
Read
Rate 90 93 98 98 92 90 96 95 99
in (%)

• This simulation model uses random number generator function which

assigns a random number between 0 and 1 to the products coming from
the source. The random number from the product is compared with the
product of read rate of parameters.

33
Work done so far(contd..)
Simulation Results:

• Simulation result is shown in Fig..

• There are 27 scenario for the given

Parameter levels. Fig.13: Replication plot

Design Name: Full Factorial Design

• Experimenter tool is used to run all Table 3:
scenario to get read redundancy. 3*3*3 Experimental
design
Design Base
• Design Expert software is used for Number of Experimental Factors: 3
Design of Experiment(DOE).
Number of Responses: 1
Number of runs: 81
Replication number: 3
34
Work done so far
From the Fig, (a), it is clear that
Document inside product box has
better performance compared to
other product types.

From Fig. (b). Front tag position has

(a)
better read redundancy compared
to others

From Fig. (c), conveyor speed of

1.5m/s has better performance
compared to other conveyor
speeds.
(b) (c)
Fig.14 :overall performance plot with respect to (a) materials,
(b)Tag position, (c) conveyor speed.

35
 Table 4: ANOVA Summary
Work done so far
Sum of Mean
Source df F-value p-value
Squares Square
• The Analysis of Variance significa
Model 3015.26 4 753.81 8.08 < 0.0001
(ANOVA) result is shown in nt

table. B-tag
1492.07 2 746.04 7.99 0.0007
• The predominant factor of the position

system is tag position and C-

Material 1523.19 2 761.59 8.16 0.0006
materials. s
• The Model F-value of 8.08 Residual 7092.74 76 93.33
indicates that the model is not
Lack of
statistically significant. 832.74 22 37.85 0.3265 0.9973 significa
Fit
• An F-value of this magnitude nt

has a 0.01 percent chance of Pure

6260.00 54 115.93
Error
occurring due to noise.
10108.0
Cor Total 80
0

36
Work done so far

In Fig.15 (a) it is clear that the product

types perform well when the tag position
are placed in front position of product box.

In Fig.15 (b) the tags perform better in

Document product type as compared to (a)
metal and fluid product types.

Fig. 15: Interaction plot between (b)

(a)Materials (b) tag position
37
 Work done so far (Contd..)
Tag Identification Accuracy
• For the current fast-pace scenario and large volume of goods we have to make
new protocol for efficient tag detection, identify the changes in the RFID
interrogation zone in the form of output phase change or received signal.

• Options are using extensive system deployments.

• These have limitation like localization inaccuracy in indoors, space constraint,

reader interferences.
Fig 16: Items on conveyor belt
(Shangguan et al.,2013.)
 Work done so far (Contd..)
Tag Identification Accuracy (Contd..)

• Next option to check the specific qualities and attributes that have a significant
transition association, and utilizing such correlation.

• The moment the tag enters interrogation zone, changes in the RSSI (received
signal strength indication) is detected, interrogation is a probabilistic.

• COTS (commercial-off-the-shelf) RFID readers detect the phase change, and

OTrack (Order tracking), PRSS(Passive RFID Sorting System) is made from the
readings.

• We will focus on OTrack and PRSS protocol.

 Work done so far (Contd..)
Otrack
• RSSI is inversely proportional to distance of tag and antenna, hence highest at
perpendicular to RFID reader (close to reader).

• RSSI shows multiple peaks in the critical region and this trend become unstable
when environment dynamics disrupt.

• So, to solve this ambiguity new trend RRR (Response Reception Ratio) is used.

• Quality of response,
(1)
 Work done so far (Contd..)
Otrack (Contd..)
• RRR peak in critical zone, time is noted and compared with time the tag passed
initial location (start point), this helps in identifying relative position of tags.

• SNR ( Signal to Noise Ratio) is high at critical region (close to reader), so more
stable signals and less background noise.

• Proximity of RRR values for each tag is looked and range that has most
consecutive periods with least variation is the critical zone of concern.
• Consecutive periods are grouped into a window time frame. Reader might receive
no response in certain period. Effective average RRR is :
(2)
 Work done so far (Contd..)
OTrack (Contd..)
• Condition to be satisfied :
-. ≤ (3)

• large holds the condition true but window is mistaken as a part of critical region
even if it is actually not under critical region.

• small, condition is not satisfied so identification of critical region fails.

• ,1st window is created on receiving response from tag i, if RRR is not 0 there,
reader will generate a new window .

• Window size is increased until the condition (3) fails, and obtain the required
critical region.
Work done so far (Contd..)
OTrack (Contd..)

Fig 17: Critical region identification

(Shangguan et al.,2013.)

After identifying critical region for the window for the tag i in the tag set S use
the basic quadratic fitting formula, obtain the identified tag set S* (arranged).
 Work done so far (Contd..)
OTrack (Contd..)
• Window size taken should not be large or small (extreme cases) resulting in
inaccuracy.
• be the RRR in , and the response in return is received from the tag with
probability > 1-η condition being

≥ (4)

• This conform low RR region window size be large enough and small window size
for high RRR regions.

• RSSI in practical situation is affected by noise and multi-path effect (reflected

signals).
 Work done so far (Contd..)
PRSS (Passive RFID Sorting System)
• In this sorting starts with identification of tags by relative motion and phase curve
fitting.

• RSSI is sensitive to environment noise, interference from other RFID readers, RF

signal. So, PRSS new protocol make use of output phase values of signal.

• The aperture for tag is defined to be first interrogation to last interrogation.

Aperture point is where antenna interrogates tag.
Fig 18: Dense tag on conveyor and
PRSS variables shown
(Zhao et al.,2017.)
 Work done so far (Contd..)
PRSS (Contd..)

• Tag is interrogated at n aperture points by the antenna m and the output at time .
• Phase is given by,
(5)

(6)
= phase variation caused by signal propagation
, = phase offset caused by reader and tag (constant for fixed carrier frequency)
d = distance between tag and reader
c = velocity of light
f = frequency of signal
= wavelength of signal
 Work done so far (Contd..)
Radial Velocity Sorting
• Equation for radial velocity ,
(7)
• On tag been identified by reader phase value change is detected decrease until
zero point and then increase. Radial velocity is calculated between 2 consecutive
interrogations.
d1 = (8)
d2 = (9)
s = distance from tag to zero point
d1,d2 = radial motion distance from tag to antenna at time t1,t2
(10)

, maximum movement distance between 2 consecutive interrogations.

 Work done so far (Contd..)
Radial Velocity Sorting (Contd..)
• So interval between 2 interrogation must be satisfying:
< (11)
• Phase change has a modulo operator which makes it hard to recognise increase or
decrease.

• In conveyor system phase monotonically decrease before zero point and then
monotonically increases.

• Constraint satisfied by consecutive points:

λ/4 v < Δt < λ/2v (12)

• We find the threshold limit Δt, to be dependent on conveyor speed and tag spacing
Δt = Δst / 2v (13)
 Conclusion
• An experimental design is conducted to evaluate performance of several
parameters on RFID system.

• Experimental Design approach enables to observe the significance of factors on

the responses.

• The statistical results of the designed experiments demonstrate that product

type and tag position are the dominant factors to the model.

• Simulation is carried out in FlexSim 2022 software and DOE was performed
using Design Expert 13 software.

49
 Conclusion (contd..)
• Only the signal directly reflected by the tag includes useful location information,
and multi-path propagation, environmental noise is present in RSSI (OTrack).

• PRSS is the quick, best, effective protocol on dense tags and high speed
conveyor system, implemented easily with single antenna system at low
computation power. (complexity O[2MN / K] , M aperture points, N grids, K
iterations).

50
 References

• Clarke, R.H., Twede,D., Tazelaar,J.R., 2006. Radio frequency identification (RFID)

performance: the effect of tag orientation and package contents. Packaging Technology and
Science.19,45-54.
• Cristina,Q., and Pigni,P., 2010 .Factors affecting RFId adoption in a vertical supply chain: the
case of the silk industry in Italy. Working Conference on Virtual Enterprises.
• Golding,P.,Tennant,V., 2007.Performance Review of RFID in the Supply Chain. IWRT.
• Kabadurmus,O., Kilinc,M,S.,Ustundag,A., 2012. Evaluation of operational factors affecting
the RFID performance in cargo sorting operations. International Journal of RF
Technologies.3,119-135.
• Pool,J.K.,Asian,S., Arabzad,S.M., Jamkhaneh,H,B., Lashaki,J,K.,2017. Development of a
model to analyse the factors affecting RFID technology acceptance in small and medium-
sized enterprises. International Journal of Services and Operations Management.28,468-
494.

51
 References(Contd)
• Porter, J.D., Richard,E.B.,Marlin,H.M., 2004.A standard test protocol for evaluation of
radio frequency identification systems for supply chain applications.Journal of
Manufacturing Systems.1, 46-55.
• Qing, X.,Chen,Z.N., 2007.Proximity effects of metallic environments on high
frequency RFID reader antenna: Study and applications. IEEE transactions on
Antennas and Propagatio.11,3105-3111.
• Vaibhav,S.,Sarwar,F.,Chan F.T.S.,Tiwari.M.K., 2012.Monitoring the performance of
conveyor system using radio frequency identification in manufacturing environment:
a recurrent neural network and genetic algorithm-based approach. International
Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing.7,551-564.
• Yogesh,D.K.,Kapoor,K.K., Williams,M.D., Williams,J., 2013.RFID systems in libraries:
An empirical examination of factors affecting system use and user
satisfaction. International Journal of Information Management.2,367-377.
• Yu,Y.,Yan,Q., 2020. Research on Environmental Factors Affecting RFID Reading
Performance.IEEE 5th Information Technology and Mechatronics Engineering
Conference (ITOEC).

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THANK YOU

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