Embedded chips and radio queries: a look at the future

Army Logistician,  Jan-Feb, 2004  by Stephen M. Rutner

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During late 2002 and early 2003, the Army was called on to deploy large numbers of forces based in the continental United States to locations throughout the world. These forces eventually included two mechanized infantry divisions (the 3d Infantry and 4th Infantry) and three light divisions (the 10th Mountain, 82d Airborne, and 101st Airborne). This undertaking required the shipping of massive numbers of vehicles and other bulk items to various ports in the Southwest Asia theater. On many occasions during the upload for these deployments, transportation officers and commanders were asked to locate specific items. Fulfilling these requests often meant that individual soldiers had to stop performing their assigned tasks and physically search the port or ship for a specific item.

While each request was made for an important reason (such as finding missing equipment, removing a vehicle from the shipment, or installing a part), the overall effect was reduced efficiency during a period when timeliness was extremely critical. The manual process of maintaining in-transit visibility (ITV) met the need of the customer (the maneuver forces), but it placed an additional burden on the suppliers (the transporters).

Transporters must recognize that customer requirements for ITV will only increase in the future. Maneuver commanders soon will demand the ability to identify the location of every major end item in transit anywhere in the world. In fact, a common request will soon be, "What is the position of end items within the ship?" This type of detail will be required to plan unloading operations and will be especially important for forced-entry operations.

A number of emerging technologies and processes not only can reduce the difficulties experienced in recent deployments but also can improve the overall effectiveness of the transportation process. Army and civilian logisticians need the ability to identify the specific location of an item throughout the transportation process, whether they are searching for a vehicle at a port or a box of tissues on a store shelf. In both cases, there are numerous benefits to being able to locate that item at any time. For the military, the most likely near-term solution could be radio frequency identification (RFID).

What Is Radio Frequency Identification?

RFID is a process based on the embedding of a computer chip that is so thin it will fit into the width of a paper label. For example, the chip could be placed within the barcode label that is put on the side of a military vehicle or a container being shipped overseas.

RFID is an emerging technology in the marking, or "tagging," of items. The system uses the ultrathin chips to store information electronically in a manner similar to that of an inked barcode label. However, RFID provides a much more powerful tool because of its ability to respond to radio requests or queries. So a simple metaphor for RFID is that it is a "super," or "power," barcode system.

Current RFID "smart tags" are able to store a 96-bit code that can identify over 268 million unique manufacturers, with each manufacturer having over 1 million products. The result is that there are approximately 3.5 x [10.sup.51] possible combinations that can be stored with RFID chips. This capability allows civilian companies to track individual items easily. The substantial number of combinations available through smart tags could allow the Department of Defense (DOD) to track every individual end item in the entire military.

Although their capabilities are impressive, RFID tags cannot operate alone. The other major parts of an RFID system are the readers, the repeaters, and the database. To gather information, an electronic query must be sent from a source to the chip or tag. Because the system uses radio signals, this query does not require an unobstructed, direct line of sight as a barcode reader does. The RFID chip replies to the electronic query by providing the information it stores to the reader. Repeaters are used when necessary to relay the data over long distances. The information then is input to the overall control system or database.

Currently, each reader is fairly expensive and has a query range of about 6 feet. However, this situation is likely to improve in the near future as civilian companies continue to refine RFID technology that will allow the use of a few readers to cover a port or the holds of ships and aircraft. Almost 100 global companies and five of the world's leading research universities, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States, formed the Auto-ID Center in 1999 as a unique partnership to apply RFID to logistics and transportation processes. DOD is a member of this group. While RFID is an evolutionary step in technology, the participants in the Auto-ID Center have recognized numerous possibilities for using RFID to improve their overall logistics processes. ITV is just one possible area where RFID could be used in the military.