Vehicle Tracking Using RFID Technology
Abstract
The use of RFID Tags in Vehicle Tracking is growing at a steady rate in India and today there is a mandate by the Govt of India that all Vehicles manufactured in India should carry RFID Tag on the windscreen of the Vehicle during the production process. The RFID tags will carry the necessary details of the Vehicle and other details as required by the Govt.
We submit a case study of a Vehicle Tracking System provided by TEAMLIFTSS to a private port in India. The system designed is to Track the Vehicle entering the port at any time and also to understand the turnaround time of the vehicle during loading and unloading operations.
The Project was to ensure that all vehicle entering the gates of the PORT are RFID tagged and tracked. There has been a number of instances when the customer could not trace the Vehicle nor estimate the period of time the vehicle was inside the port premises or understand whether the vehicle is at the desired designated location.
The RFID data captured helped in understanding the whereabouts of the Vehicle after entry into the port premises and also ensure that the vehicle is at the designated location. And also the system also arrested pilferage and theft. The system could identify though a Dashboard the details of the Vehicle and the entry/exit time, the period of time spent inside the premises etc.
The Port was interested in a system as described above and hence approached TEAMLIFTSS to design & develop a RFID based VEHICLE TRACKING SYSTEM in order to understand the Vehicle presence during entry and exit and also the their location status real time.
The port is the largest automated port for exports and imports in South Asia.
Importers in the hinterland import iron ore, coal and other bulk cargo by using the port facility and the port serves many importers in India.
There are number of Trucks entering and leaving after loading and unloading inside the port premises. The number of Vehicles plying inside the port premises in total on a daily basis will be about 1000 vehicles/ Trucks . The Management found it extremely difficult to track the vehicles in around an area of 6000 acres.
The management had an arduous task of locating the whereabouts of the Truck in the premises and they wanted to an adopt a system that could give them real time location of the vehicles at any point of time. The System envisaged was a RFID based Vehicle tracking system which can help them arrest pilferage, theft, improve efficiency during loading / unloading operations , accountability and finally to ensure that the items picked are by the designated vehicle only. An RFID based system using Handled Terminals with a Mobile Application and Fixed Mount RFID Readers with Antennas was planned upon. TEAMLIFTSS was approached to provided the necessary RFID Terminals and Application Software.
RFID tags were purchased and they were fixed the Port Vehicles/ Trucks and in case of a third party Vehicle arrangements were made to provide a RFID TAG with a lanyard at the Gate entry and the details of the Truck were mapped to the TAG at the entry point . The RFID Tag was hung on the Mirror of the Vehicle and by using a RFID HANDHELD TERMINAL the TAGS were scanned by a personnel along the route by means of a Mobile Application. The application will give the location of the Vehicle at the checking points or in a certain area. In certain locations antennas and fixed Mount readers were positioned to automatically track the vehicle during entry and exit. The data captured is updated to back end server for processing and information management.
A GPRS based RFID Handheld Terminal from ZEBRA technologies was used for the purpose of Tracking the vehicle at each checking point. A Mobile application was developed and loaded in each of the GPRS based RFID HAND HELD TERMINAL and a back end application is used to capture using Fixed Mount Readers and Antennas.
The System captures the location details and the entry /exit time of the vehicle long with the Vehicle and owner details. It also checks whether the vehicle has checked in at the designated location. If there is any abnormality in the operations then a alert /alarm is raised to the central Management team for action.
The entry and exit security personnel were provided with RFID Handheld Terminals loaded with the mobile application to track the Vehicles
The Data collected was integrated with the back System and the data generated was published through Dashboards key Management Personnel.