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1. Introduction
Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology has been widely used in industrial manufacturing, warehousing, retail and many other fields. RFID is a kind of auto identification technology based on wireless RF, the objects information storages inside of small tags and which can be collected by the reader. RFID belongs to auto identification and data capture in ISO standard organization, which including bar code, magnetic stripe, RFID, biometric identity, smart card, near field communication and real-time locating systems, etc. RFID technology can be divided into passive RFID and active RFID depending on whether the tag is battery powered or not. Depending on the operating frequency, RFID technology can be divided into LF RFID, HF RFID and ultra high frequency (UHF) RFID.
In this paper, we mainly discuss the fusion technology of UHF band RFID technology and robots. UHF passive RFID technology is a low-cost RFID technology that works in the 900 MHz frequency band for identifying and managing a large number of items. The tag does not need power supply, it obtains energy from the radiation signal of the reader and realizes the communication between the tag and the reader by the backscatter modulation. UHF passive RFID technology can realize the identification speed of hundreds of tags per second and can identify tags within a range of about 20 meters. UHF active RFID technology can be used for long-distance item identification and data collection. It can work in 433 MHz, 470 MHz or 2.4 GHz frequency bands depending on the use of different wireless technologies. As the tag carries a battery, the communication distance between the RFID reader and the tag can be increased to a range of hundreds of meters to several kilometers.
The authors have looked into different industries case studies and identified a list of benefits of robots system, for example, automation, transparency, asset management and reliability and so on (Yahia, 2011; Zeng et al., 2018). RFID robot is a new type of robot system that combines UHF RFID system with mobile robot chassis. RFID robots can move themselves in complex industrial environments and perform RFID system tag identification and sensor data collection services. RFID robots can automatically inventory tools and materials on industrial sites or shelves at a predetermined time and planned route.
The...