RFID Goes to School

Underlining the growing importance of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) in the retail environment, three state research universities have opened separate laboratories dedicated to the technology. Although projects undertaken must be approved by university faculty, all three are available to conduct contract research for corporate sponsors.RFID is a unique way of remotely identifying an object as large as a railroad car or as small as a postage stamp by means of a radio signal transmitted from a microchip attached to it. The microchip broadcasts an Electronic Product Code, or EPC, a unique number that identifies the specific item. Once it is read and entered into a computer, the number can identify where the item originated, the date of its production and other variables. Research Centers DevelopedThe three universities are University of Arkansas, Michigan State University and University of Wisconsin. Each university has its own dedicated facilities capable of simulating various conditions and environments commonly encountered within the retail supply chain.The University of Arkansas facility, known as the RFID Research Center, is a sub-unit of the Information Technology Research Institute in the university's Sam M. Walton College of Business. Not surprisingly, one of its key business sponsors is Wal-Mart Stores of Bentonville, Ark."One of the reasons we decided to set up a laboratory dedicated to RFID is that much of the research we were conducting required access to a real world environment," says Bill Hardgrave, Ph.D., executive director of the laboratory. "We were also getting requests from the retail supplier community to assist them with their tagging efforts."The School of Packaging originally established the Michigan State University laboratory in 1999 as an Auto-ID lab rather than as an RFID lab. Until recently, it occupied three separate spaces at the university. "We are now in the final stages of securing a new 10,000-square-foot standalone facility," says Robb Clarke, Ph.D., director of the laboratory. "It will also include a smaller, secured warehouse space where proprietary work can be completed."The University of Wisconsin established its RFID laboratory in response to suggestions and strong interest from members of its E-Business Consortium and Institute, which fosters collaboration between the university and more than 50 member companies, including both manufacturers and vendors of RFID-related hardware and software. Its purpose is to explore applications of RFID in a "real world" environment."Based on feedback that we have received from our members, it was evident that there was significant interest in creating such a workgroup," says Alfonso Guiterrez, associate director for research and education for the E-Business Consortium. The workgroup's efforts will focus on four key areas: Analyzing the true capabilities and limitations of RFID technologies; validating the practicality and potential business benefits associated with them; understanding the keys to successful deployment and adoption of RFID technology applications; and gaining insight into the future evolution of these technologies."The RFID workgroup consists of potential users, technology developers and University of Wisconsin researchers who collaboratively investigate key questions and issues of common interest to the group in an objective, structured and rigorous manner," Guiterrez explains. "The specific activities of the workgroup are defined by the group members and executed in a manner that leverages resources and knowledge across multiple companies. The scope of activities includes controlled experimentation and pilots with RF technologies in laboratories and test beds as well as field tests using realistic application scenarios." The workgroup also interacts with other research organizations such as MIT's Auto-ID Center and EPCglobal (see sidebar), which are involved with setting uniform standards for RFID throughout the world, and with vendors as appropriate to help achieve the objectives of the group.Simulating the Real World EnvironmentWhile there have been huge steps forward in RFID technology over the past few years, figuring out how to get it to work in the real world environment has been more difficult. This is why a common objective of all three university RFID labs has been to simulate as closely as possible the conditions under which the technology is required to operate."We have created a lab that replicates the typical consumer goods supply chain," says Hardgrave of Arkansas. "We actually have two lab facilities. One is an 8,000-square-foot facility located in a working manufacturing/warehouse environment with two dock doors, a 90-foot by 30-foot conveyor with sort and merge lanes capable of speeds up to 600 feet per minute, fork lifts, pallet racks, impact doors, etc. The other is a 4,500-square-foot lab for testing refrigerated and frozen products. It consists of a 36 F facility and a separate minus 10 F facility. We also have all major brands of transmitters and readers, both those on stands and handheld units."Faculty from other departments within the university also staff the RFID lab. "We have faculty from Industrial, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, Logistics, even Political and Animal Science, working on RFID projects," says Hardgrave. Michigan State's lab can also closely simulate real world conditions. "We have 134 KHz, 13.56 MHz and 915 MHz systems," says Clarke. "These cover Class 0, 0+, 1 and Gen 2. Because we are a packaging school, we also have temperature and humidity chambers as well as dynamic test equipment, including shock, vibration and compression testers. We have full materials testing laboratories, access to an anechoic chamber that is completely isolated from all external sound and electromagnetic radiation sources, and electrical measurement and monitoring equipment in the Electrical Engineering department if we don't have it here."The University of Wisconsin lab is divided into three distinct stations, each utilizing the latest RFID technology. "Our lab consists of a conveyor system station, a portal/dock-door station and an antenna design and performance analysis station," says Professor Guiterrez. The conveyor system station consists of a 45-foot loop with diverter and inline label applicator. The loop is divided into three segments, each capable of operating at a different speed.The station utilizes a state-of-the-art device network to control the motors and drives. "It supports multiple reading stations with flexible configuration of readers from the leading vendor companies," says Guiterrez. "The portal/dock-door station is capable of performing inventory tracking experiments, transportation experiments and other multiple object check point applications, with the ability to use configurable antenna arrays. It also has the ability to automate the reading process with the help of middleware software such as BEA and Red Prairie." The antenna design and performance analysis station uses a 14-foot by 8-foot by 8-foot anechoic chamber to perform multiple measurements on single objects, tag and antenna characteristics. The station is capable of performing tag chip impedance measurements, antenna parameters measurement and radar cross section (RCS) measurements as well.Funding the LaboratoriesThe University of Arkansas RFID lab is funded privately, not by taxes or university funds. "Funds are generated from companies that pay fees to purchase annual memberships," explains Hardgrave. "Funded research projects are determined by the funding agency, which can be either a corporate client or a unit of government. Other research projects are initiated by faculty. An advisory board helps provide direction to the suite of research projects."The Michigan State University lab was begun without university funding and has continued to generate its own revenues until this year. "The University and the College of Packaging are now involved in the new lab and warehouse space that I described earlier," notes Professor Clarke. "Projects are commissioned by corporate or governmental clients and through research grants. As lead faculty member for RFID, I determine what projects to take on if approached by clients. I also apply for research grants from appropriate sources."The University of Wisconsin RFID lab is funded by multiple sources, including the university itself and industry members. "The direction of research is determined by the director of the lab, with input from industry, technology providers and university-associated faculty," says Guiterrez.Corporate clients are invited to submit proposals for specific projects to any of the three laboratories. "Let's say, for example, that a P-O-P producer wanted to determine the most efficient and least costly way to use RFID for a specific display that they are designing for a client," says Hardgrave. "We would be very glad to sit down with them and agree on specific objectives, timelines and costs."The Michigan State University School of Packaging lab is also eager to work with corporate clients. "In fact, because we are a packaging degree-granting school with 14 specialized faculty members and over 600 students, we can also help with design, costs, materials, environmental, handling and distribution issues, suppliers, and so forth," says Clarke. "We also have the option of offering focused testing and research because we have nearly 100 graduate students pursuing Master's and Ph.D. degrees. We also have international students and faculty that can offer personal expertise on global issues."The University of Wisconsin RFID lab conducts industry-sponsored research projects with specific aims. "Each project proposal is defined in ways that satisfy both the company needs and the research and academic guidelines of the university," Guiterrez explains.Unique CapabilitiesEach of the three university laboratories offers unique capabilities that they feel are unduplicated. "We believe that we have the best 'dirty lab' facility in the world," says Hardgrave. "Mark Roberti from RFID Journal once commented in an article that the University of Arkansas lab is unsurpassed by any academic institution and rivals the very best private industry labs. We are also the only academic lab in the world accredited by EPCglobal as a performance test center."Michigan State's Clarke feels that his lab's emphasis on packaging gives it a unique advantage, especially in the area of materials science.Clarke and his students recently completed a project involving corrugated, for example, a material well known to all P-O-P producers. "Corrugated is generally considered an 'RF-friendly' material," Clarke explains. "That is, radio frequency energy passes through it easily, enabling RFID tags embedded in the corrugated or on the other side of an empty box to be read easily. If the material absorbs moisture, however, it becomes less RF-friendly and even after it dries out, it is never as RF-friendly as it was before it absorbed moisture."This effect, known as hysteresis, is just one of the conditions that packaging and displays can encounter under real world conditions. "This shows that you can't just test RFID systems in a lab under standard heat and humidity conditions," Clarke emphasizes. "When you take the tags and readers out into a warehouse where temperature and humidity are subject to constant change, the system may not perform as expected."Clarke and his students also attempted to read tags on and through common polyethylene stretch wrap. They read the tags with no wrap, then increased the number of layers of wrap covering the pallet and found that there was no effect on the ability to read the tags. Clarke cautions, however, that not all stretch wraps are alike. "Chemicals are sometimes added to the wrap to change its performance characteristics," he says. "They can change the ability of the wrap to transmit RF, so the specific stretch wrap being used really needs to be tested."The University of Wisconsin's Guiterrez stresses his laboratory's technical capabilities. "There are several other universities that have established RFID laboratories, and some have conveyor systems and portal stations comparable to ours. We also have access to direct technical input from over 35 companies actively involved in our work group and the deep body of interdisciplinary knowledge that a research university like the University of Wisconsin has available." He says the university has also invested in technical infrastructure installation, including a large anechoic chamber, and advanced instrumentation to research RFID application issues.Current and Future ProjectsWe asked each of the three professors we interviewed if they could, without violating any confidentiality agreements, give us an idea of what types of projects their RFID labs have worked on or plan to work on in the future."Some projects that I can comment on include determining the effect of RFID on out-of-stocks, the early results of which have already been released, and measuring efficiency gains from RFID in the supply chain," says Hardgrave. We are also studying the use of RFID in transportation, including such things as yard management and item level tagging."Projects planned for the future are even more ambitious. "We plan to investigate new forms of tags and tag manufacturing," says Hardgrave. "We also plan to study integration of passive RFID with active RFID and other wireless sensors with the goal of creating an environment of a wireless sensor network, and consumer reaction to RFID."Michigan State's Clarke says that future projects will depend on what corporate clients need to know, but his lab has already compiled an impressive list of accomplishments. "We've looked at where and how RFID systems would fit into a warehouse or distribution center environment, how RFID works (or doesn't) with products and materials, and how various readers and tags work together," he says. "We have also studied mapping of read fields within a particular environment or in the middle of an open space, how particular products affect RFID transmission or radiolucency, how shipping and storage environments affect RFID readability, how all packaging materials impact RFID transmission or radiolucency, where tags will work on case and pallet loads -- and where they won't, the impact of heavy humidity on tag readability on packages of various materials, how much energy actually is required to activate a passive tag and whether that is likely given case and pallet-load materials, products and/or stacking patterns."The University of Wisconsin's Guiterrez says that his lab is currently conducting experiments attempting to better understand the product characteristics that affect RFID system performance."We are looking at all levels of the system," he says. "This includes UHF tag performance effects of speed, tag placement, and product content and shape. It also includes antenna design characterization, new antenna materials and design performance analysis, and performance analysis of RFID applications at multiple frequencies."RFID is rapidly becoming an integral part of display technology, and with the advent of academic research laboratories such as Arkansas, Michigan State and Wisconsin, P-O-P producers now have an additional resource to which they can turn for assistance.

RFID Goes to School

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