KR100784492B1 - Product Tracing System based on RFID - Google Patents

Abstract

An RFID-based object tracking device is disclosed. An object tracking device capable of tracking and managing object information by using RF (Radio Frequency Identification) of the present invention includes a relationship table and a relationship between a product, an RFID attached to a box, and a pallet. Since it consists of DB of historical table, not only product movement can be easily expressed but also tracking based on this table structure when tracking tracking information.

RFID, Product Information Tracking, SCM, Tracking, Trace, EPC

Description

RFID based object tracking device {Product Tracing System based on RFID}

1 is an RFID based system operating system,

2 is a view showing in detail the input-output structure related to tracking;

3 is a diagram illustrating a tracking server DB concept;

4 is a trace information structure analysis;

And,

5 is an explanatory diagram for explaining a process of query expansion.

* Description of symbols on the main parts of the drawings *

110: information server 112: tracking server

120,130: Institution 122,132: Information module

124,134: Tracking module 128,138 RF reader

The present invention relates to an object tracking device, and more particularly, to a technology for easily tracking an object using RFID.

RFID is now a technology that incorporates the use of electromagnetic or electrostatic coupling within the radio frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum to identify objects, animals or humans.

RFID is increasingly being used in the industry as a technology to replace barcodes because there is no need for direct contact or scanning over the visible band.

Typical RFID systems consist of an antenna, a reader, and a tag, also called a transponder. The antenna uses radio frequency propagation to carry a signal to activate the tag. When the tag is activated, data transmitted by the tag is transmitted to the antenna, and the antenna is connected to the reader to receive data from the tag, thereby performing data transmission using RFID. Here, the tag is divided into active and passive, and the active tag can transmit data even over a distance of several tens of meters from the reader, and the passive tag can transmit data only at a close distance of several centimeters.

On the other hand, it relates to a technology for tracking a moving object, document, or person. Firstly, the VeriSign company's document describes the inclusion relationship of objects, and describes the query type and response structure for the tracking query. have.

Second, EPCglobal, which deals with the de facto standard of RFID, provides a structure that provides the observed information of RFID in a module called EPC Information Service (EPCIS) based on Electronic Product Code (EPC). Is dealing with. However, EPCDS is currently in the process of being suspended.

Third, the 2003 patent-pending system and method for tracking and managing objects using radio frequency identification tags is not a computerized systemic representation or detailed technical approach to tracking, but rather tracking of goods in physical spaces (eg warehouses). Has a description of.

Most of the other domestically applied and registered patents are, for example, "tracking device and method" of Korean Patent Publication No. 2003-0022107, and "silver town management system and method using wireless communication" of Korean Patent Publication No. 2003-0043178. And "Personal Position Detection System" of Korean Patent Publication No. 2003-0012854 and "Korean Personal Patent No. 2003-0029968"

Methods and systems for location-based recording of user activity, and "System and method for monitoring and tracking" of Korean Patent Publication No. 2002-00722562 are all related to location tracking using RFID.

That is, a general location tracking device using RFID is easy to track because it assigns and manages a specific RFID to one object, but due to the increase in logistics, the number of objects actually managed is very difficult to manage.

That is, when several objects (goods) are packaged and managed in one box, tracking of the individual objects becomes difficult because the movement of the box becomes the movement of individual objects contained in the box.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention is to provide an RFID-based object tracking device that can easily track the individual objects by efficiently designing the internal DB structure of the tracking server to accurately represent the relationship between the objects. .

Location tracking apparatus for tracking the location of the upper object to be tracked by using the RFID according to the present invention for achieving the above object, respectively installed in the cell area of the set area to transmit the corresponding location information of the upper object. Receiving a plurality of RFID readers, RFID information of an upper object read through the RFID reader, and ID information of individual objects included in the upper object, and reading current position information of the upper object to deliver tracking information and providing tracking information. The tracking module to query and the tracking information read by the tracking module to be separately stored in the tracking relationship table for storing the ID information and location information of the parent object and the inclusion relationship table representing the inclusion relationship of the individual objects included in the parent object A module-driven tracking book that stores information and provides answers to the questions in the tracking information. It is configured to include a burr, characterized in that the location tracking of each individual object through the location tracking of the parent object.

In addition, the tracking module is configured to query the tracking server to the tracking information of the parent object when querying the tracking information of the individual object, the tracking information includes the ID, location information, time, etc. of the parent object It is preferable that it is made by.

On the other hand, the information read from the RFID reader is configured to further include an information module for receiving the relevant information through the ALE (126, Application Level Event; middleware standard standard proposed by EPCglobal), wherein the information module is related information It is configured to transmit to the tracking module.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described in detail an embodiment of the present invention.

First, the overall system structure of the tracking information management system using RFID will be described with reference to FIG. 1. FIG. 1 shows a system management system using RFID, and the structure of the system using RFID is based on the information server 110 and the tracking server 112 in which institution A 120, institution B 130 are two root systems. It has a running structure. The information server 110 is a server necessary for tracking object information for RFID, and the tracking server 112 is a server for managing tracking information based on RFID. The two servers are separated because the roles of the information server 110 and the tracking server 112 are different and the level of information held is different.

This separation is also mentioned in RFID's de facto standard, EPCglobal. Although EPCglobal provides a standard for the information server ONS (Object Name Server), it does not present a standard for the tracking server EPCDS. ONS is the only one global root in the world, whereas the EPCDS, like the Local Root operated by a consortium agreed by region or application, does not present an international standard structure. The tracking server 112 of FIG. 1, the information modules 122 and 132 of each institution, and the tracking modules 124 and 134 are modules that handle overall tracking related information.

The tracking server 112 is a module that provides the DB structure to retain the tracking information, the answer to the question, the information module (122, 132) may use the Observation structure defined by the current EPCIS, the tracking module (124, 134) is a tracking server ( 112 is a structure for providing information and querying.

Referring to Figure 2 will be described in detail the input-output structure of the tracking of each engine. For convenience, the description will be made based on the engine A 120. The information read from the RFID reader 128 arrives at the information module 122 as the observation information through the ALE (126, Application Level Event (Middleware Standard Standard Specification) proposed by EPCglobal). The information arriving at the information module 122 is reported as observation information to the tracking server 112 through the tracking module 124. And when you want to see the tracking information in the future tracking information to the tracking server 112, tracking server 112 has a structure that answers the tracking information.

In order to execute the above structure, the tracking server 112 is formed in a DB structure, and the DB structure of the tracking server 112 will be described with reference to FIG. 3. Since this DB structure is a conceptual structure, it does not mention the normalization problem of DB (which occurs in the Children field of the containment table), which is actually required for implementation. In FIG. 3, the inclusion relationship table 112a and the tracking relationship table 112b are separated in designing a DB in order to form the most effective structure for various questions required by the tracking server. A method of solving various questions presented to the tracking server 112 will be described in FIG. 4. The case presented in Figure 3 is interpreted as follows. In the pallet numbers 142 and 144 moved in the pallet 140 of FIG. 1, goods from A1 to A8 are bundled into one pallet (pallet number 142) and moved to predetermined locations L1, L2, and L3. It explains. In the trace relationship table 112a, only A is represented as having moved. That is, the tracking relationship table 112a displays "Time" indicating the arrival time, "Location" indicating the place, and "ID" indicating the object, where A is 10:00 at L1 and 10:30 at Mark L2 and arrive at L3 at 11:00. However, it can be seen that the inclusion relationship table 112b includes A1, ..., A8 under A.

That is, the inclusion relationship table 112b is represented by "ID" indicating a product of a packaging unit, "Parent" indicating a population object to which each individual product belongs, and "Children" indicating each individual product. Therefore, "A", "A", "A2-A8" are recorded in "ID" in the inclusion relationship table 112b, and "A" is displayed as "Parent" of each individual product.

Therefore, assuming that the tracking relationship table 112a and the inclusion relationship table 112b are combined, it can be seen that A1, ..., A8 also moved to L3 via L1 and L2.

When the RFID information read through each organization 120 through FIG. 3 is stored in the DB from the tracking server 112, the tracking relationship table 112a and the inclusion relationship table 112b are separated and stored, thereby solving the problem. Presented. Next, let's look at what kinds of queries are possible with this information.

4 visually expresses a situation in which a product movement (event) occurs and a question that may arise about the situation. The movement of goods is represented by three factors (Time, Location, Object (ID)), and object information tracking can also be caused by these three factors. The most typical question types are "1. Event at specific location", "2. Event at specific time", "3. Event at specific object", "4. Event at specific location & time", "5 Events that occur at specific locations & specific objects "and" 6. Events that occur at specific objects & specific times ". For example, question 4 of FIG. 4 ("4. Event at specific location & time") can be "Any goods arrived at E-Mart on March 5, 2006?" The third question, "3. Event on a specific object," could be, "What is the path of shrimp cane?" As described above, in the question regarding object information tracking, the structure of FIG. 4 represents a basic type of question. Nevertheless, the answer to the question must be taken into account the containment relationship of the object. For example, a question such as "What is the path of A1's movement at a specific time?" Should be changed to "What is the path of A's movement at a specific time?" In some cases, it may be, "What is the path of A1 or A's movement at a particular time?" In other words, the query needs to be expanded. This query expansion process is described in FIG.

If the tracking module 124 has a tracking information query such as "What is the movement path of the A1 product?" As the tracking server 112 (S210), the question is the inclusion relationship table 112b of FIG. 3 as in the algorithm described in FIG. By expanding with reference to A, a parent object A of A1 is derived (S220). If we redefine the question based on the extended A object, the query expands to "What is the path of A?" When the extended query is processed with reference to the tracking relationship table 112a according to the algorithm of FIG. 5 (S230), the desired result is “L1 at 10:00, L2 at 10:30, and L3 at 11:00”. Moved to ”(S240).

3 and 4 represent the structure of the tracking server, the data structure to report to the tracking server 112 uses the Observation structure in EPCIS, and the structure to query the tracking server 112 is Verisign method of the web service The structure described using and responding at the tracking server 112 presents an XML-based structure. In the case of EPC, it is not mentioned yet, but you can also develop an XML-structured Query Language.

The query structure and the answer structure are already mentioned in the EPCIS part of the EPCglobal standard and mentioned in the service structure of Verisign and will not be described in detail in this patent.

As described above, according to the present invention, when several objects (goods) are packaged in one box, the movement of the box becomes the movement of individual objects contained in the box. In order to efficiently design the internal DB structure of the tracking server, it is characterized by separately designing the containment table and the history table.

Also, in such an environment, a query for a specific object matches a query for a parent object (containment relationship) of that object, so it expands to a parent object query for the query object (for example, if you query the location of a product). To the location of the packaging box or pallet).

Although the present invention has been described in detail only with respect to the described embodiments, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations are possible within the technical scope of the present invention, and such modifications and variations belong to the appended claims.

According to the RFID-based object tracking device according to the present invention as described above, by forming a DB structure that separates the table (Containment Table) and the tracking relationship table (History Table) can not only express the movement of goods, but also tracking information When tracing on, it is easy to trace based on this table structure.

Claims (4)

In the location tracking device for tracking the location of the upper object to be tracked using the RFID, A plurality of RFID readers installed in cell areas of a set area and transmitting corresponding area location information of the upper object; A tracking module which receives the RFID information of the upper object read through the RFID reader and the ID information of the individual object included in the upper object, reads its current location information, delivers tracking information, and queries the tracking information; And In the tracking information read by the tracking module, the tracking information is stored in a tracking relationship table for storing ID information and location information of a higher object and an inclusion relationship table indicating an inclusion relationship of individual objects included in the higher object. And a tracking server operating as a module for providing an answer to a question of tracking information. The RFID tracking apparatus of claim 4, wherein the location tracking of each individual object is performed through the location tracking of the upper object. The method of claim 1, The tracking module When querying the tracking information of the individual object to the tracking server, the RFID-based location tracking device characterized in that the query is extended to the tracking information of the parent object. The method of claim 1, The tracking information is based on the RFID, characterized in that the ID, location information, the time of the upper object is created. The method of claim 1, And an information module configured to receive the information read from the RFID reader through an ALE (126, Application Level Event; middleware partial standard standard presented by EPCglobal) and transmit the received related information to the tracking module. RFID-based location tracking device, characterized in that configured.

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