44 RFID UPDATE
GROUND HANDLING INTERNATIONAL FEBRUARY 2013 On the right track
With every passing year, RFID gains more and more converts. And the aviation sector, as can be seen here, is no exception.
t’s not new and it’s not revolutionary. In fact, the first usage of RFID dates back to the middle of the last century, although the pioneering thoughts on the subject are generally attributed to one Harry Stockman, whose paper “Communication by Means of Reflected Power” saw the light of day just after the Second World War, in 1948. This isn’t the place to explain the technology behind the idea, for there are numerous pages on the Web that fulfil that requirement. No, what interests us here is the application and its growing significance (and implementation) within the airport environment. Today, RFID has been harnessed to
provide solutions to many different aviation problems. An RFID baggage tag system, for example, will give virtually a 100% guarantee to its users that baggage thus marked will arrive at the correct destination. Tagging bags with RFID also enables their quick retrieval from a baggage system, should this become necessary. Although at present there are not very many airports around the world utilising RFID to check in baggage (the time-honoured barcode still reigns supreme for most), the fact is that RFID is much more accurate. The bill for mishandled bags, on an annual basis, is still something of an eye-opener but until the barcode is completely superseded by the RFID tag, that situation isn’t likely to change too much. Similarly, vehicle tracking can be achieved by means of RFID: this applies to both motorised and non-motorised equipment. In short, advances in RFID have permitted a comprehensive overview of operations within a specific area: there’s very little indeed today that cannot be tracked or monitored. And, as the technology improves, so the hardware becomes smaller and smaller and more sophisticated: that’s progress. In fact, for some, RFID is already becoming old hat: NFC, or Near Field Communication, is seen as a more interesting future. For that reason we have included the subject within the body of this article.
Ideas in action
For anyone interested in taking the concept further, there are several providers of solutions within the marketplace. To date, the employment of RFID as a tool
Just the ticket? RFID far more accurate than barcodes for baggage handling
tends to focus on the baggage handling operation, since this element of the airport process is one that is open to error. Luggage label barcode reading, in the main, is highly accurate, of course, but there are occasions when a barcode is obscured or damaged during the transit process, and as such may not be recorded by the sorting camera. As mentioned above, the cost of mishandled or lost baggage has become a major issue within the air transport industry. For these sorts of reasons, airports like McCarran International in Las Vegas opted for the technology some time back. For Las Vegas’ airport, the milestone year was 2005: that was when the initial phase of the switch from barcode to RFID got underway. In particular, for Sam Ingalls, the station’s Assistant Director of Aviation – Information Systems, this was the start of a memorable project. “We had the system completely installed by 2006,” he recalls, “and we haven’t looked back. Some clients have tried to break it all down – like how much is charter, how much international, but it’s totally 100% RFID enabled.” Does he get frustrated that other airports have not gone down this route? “Not really. Hong Kong is the other main user and I know there are other projects about, such as at Malpensa. For us, it’s a technology that brings both accuracy and significant benefits. It works well, day in, day out in our environment and we have accurate data points. I feel that ground handlers and airlines could continue with the technology and we’ve had some carriers track items into the
bellies of aircraft. More can be done elsewhere, that’s for sure. For us, though, it’s great.”
Sam admits that the customer does not actually see the benefit, though. “The main story can’t be told,” he says ruefully, “but it works.”
He believes that, in time, barcode users will start to switch; but that change, to date, has been slower than he at first anticipated.
“Qantas has picked up on this technology, though, and they have a good bag tagging operation over there. “We’re now on to Gen 2 chips (Gen 1 was a read-only type whilst Gen 2 chips offer both reading and writing) and these could be embedded in the actual luggage. Things are moving beyond the consumable bag and chip idea now. Nobody argues about the accuracy side of the equation and cost has gone down for us in terms of the tags. We use tens of millions a year, which gives you an idea of the scale of the traffic here.”
And what about NFC: did he see this as the natural corollary? “It’s difficult to say. Work is ongoing in
this area and I feel that more systems will come along that could take advantage of this technology. One thing for the future is that of the embedded tag. Luggage manufacturers could take this on and the cost is infinitesimal, really. I’m also watching the Qantas application to see how that scales. IATA has helped by establishing a UHF RFID standard so that the aviation sector is now prepared for this.”
Chips and trips
Motorola Solutions, as a tag manufacturer, has many years’ experience in this technology. There, Pankaj Shukla, who is Director, RFID Market Development, Europe & Middle East, comments that whilst the technology has been eagerly adopted by many industry sectors, notably retail and automotive, take-up within the aviation arena has been less dramatic. “Our work within the aviation sector has been largely with asset management – tracking parts, that kind of thing. Boeing and Airbus have been using this technology for their parts whilst Lufthansa has utilised tags in their hangar operations. In fact, the airframe manufacturers have been using the tags for their whole supply chain programme; it’s not necessarily for every nut and bolt but the tags are useful when incorporated with parts. At a later date a mechanic can simply scan the tag and obtain the history and status of the part in question. “There are advantages with the UHF tags, which operate in a range from 860 to 960 MHz. The frequency is nearly
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