International Conference on Intelligent and Advanced Systems 2007

An RFID Warehouse Robot

Loh Poh Chuan, Ayob Johari, Mohd Helmy Abd Wahab, Danial Md. Nor, Nik Shahidah Afifi Md. Taujuddin,
Mohd Erdi Ayob
Faculty of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia
P.O. Box 101, Pt. Raja, 86400 Batu Pahat, Johor, MALAYSIA

Abstract- RFID is one of the latest trend in the industry. 3. Develop an application for RFID robot in
Its potential application can range from warehouse to warehouse.
library management. This project is aimed to build an
D. Scopes
autonomous robot with RFID application. The project
integrates RFID reader and PIC microcontroller as the The scope of RFID robot is limited as following:
main components. The movement control comprises
1. Circuit designs including controller board, motor
servo-motor with infrared sensors for the line follower.
driver and interface for RFID reader module.
The whole programming operation was carried out by
assembly language using MPLab 7.3. The robot has the 2. Software development for autonomous robot
ability to identify the items by reading the tag on the involving microcontroller programming.
items. The robot will pick up the item and navigate to
prescribed destination using line follower module to 3. Application of RFID tag in identifying goods and its
store the item at the appropriate place and location. A location.
small white platform with black line is built for
demonstration and testing. II. RELATED WORK
A.. Case Study 1
Keyword: RFID, robot, line follower, sensors, reader, servo Svetlana Domnitcheva [1] from Institute for Pervasive
motor.
Computing, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH)
Zurich, Switzerland develops smart vacuum cleaner –an
I. INTRODUCTION
autonomous location-aware cleaning device. He develops a
A. Overview of the project prototype of an autonomous mobile cleaning robot which
implements an opposite, self-positioning approach. The
Nowadays Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) has
robot is enhanced with an RFID antenna. This device learns
become solution in the markets including livestock
its present location by detecting small RFID tags spread on
identification and automated vehicle identification (AVI)
the floor and adjusts its behavior according to this
systems. This is not a new technology but has been in the
information. The specification of the project is listed in
public domain for at least 10 years.
Table 2.1
RFID is a form of data collection system. The data is
Table 2.1: Summary for Case Study 1
stored and remotely retrieved using devices called RFID
tags or transponders. RFID is suitable for identifying both Features Descriptions
products and assets within the supply chain environment. Robot x Lego Mindstorms Robotic
RFID solutions consist of four basic components: tags, hardware Invention kit
readers, antenna and software. RFID x Hitachi’s μ-Chip RFID antenna
The combination of RFID and autonomous robot will hardware
provide an incredible solution for warehouse. This robot is CPU x BTnode
suitable for industry where they need to maintain a huge Software x Not Quite C
warehouse.
The RFID robot will serve the purpose to arrange and B. Case Study 2
allocate the goods in the warehouse.
Chaitanya Gharpure, Vladimir Kulyukin and Aliasgar
B. Aim Kutiyanawala [2] from Utah State University, Utah built
RoboCart, a robotic shopping assistant for the visually
Design and construct an RFID autonomous robot. impaired. They did their experiment at Lee’s MarketPlace, a
C. Objectives supermarket in Logan, Utah. They limit their scope to the
robot-assisted navigation of a supermarket and on the
The main objectives of implementing the RFID robot product retrieval from the shelves. RoboCart uses RFID-
included but are not limited to the following: based localization. They build a global map of the
1. Construct an autonomous robot. supermarket’s grocery section (the lobby, 10 aisles, and 5
cash registers) and tested the robot by randomly selecting
2. Integrate RFID technology in the robot. various destinations in the store.

1-4244-1355-9/07/$25.00 @2007 IEEE ~ 451

 International Conference on Intelligent and Advanced Systems 2007

Table 2.2: Summary for Case Study 2 F. RFID tag

Features Descriptions RFID tag has a chip and an antenna. A chip can store a
x Pioneer 2DX robotic platform unique serial number or other information based on the tag’s
Robot type of memory, which can be read-only, read-write, or
x SICK laser range finder
hardware write-once read-many. The antenna, which is attached to the
x Logitech camera
RFID x TI-Series 2000 RFID reader microchip, transmits information from the chip to the reader.
hardware x 200mm x 200mm antenna There are theree types of RFID tags: Passive, Active and
CPU x Dell TM Ultralight X300 Semi passive. Passive RFID tags do not have their own
x ActivMedia’s Laser Mapping and power source, such as a battery, nor can they initiate
Software communication with a reader Active RFID tags on the other
Navigation software.
hand contain an internal battery and are typically read/write
devices. Semi passive RFID tags are equipped with a power
C. Case Study 3 soured such as battery to provide power for the integrated
Tomohiro UMETANI, Tatsuo ARAI, Yasushi MAE, circuits, but do not actively transmit a signal to the reader.
Kenji INOUE, and Jun-ichiro MAEDA [3] from Osaka G. RFID Reader
University, Japan develop parts and packets unification for
construction automation and robots. The project is about A reader uses its own antenna to communicate with the
simplification in motion planning of the construction robots tag. When a reader broadcasts radio waves, all tags
using information attached to components and designated to respond to that frequency and within range
reconfiguration of data structure for process of construction will respond. A reader also has the capability to
tasks using RFID tag. communicate with the tag without a direct line of sight,
depending on the radio frequency and the type of tag (active,
Table 2.3: Summary for Case Study 3 passive, or semi passive) used.
Features Descriptions Readers can process multiple items at once, allowing for
Robot x hybrid arm increased read processing times. They can be mobile, such
hardware as handheld devices that scan objects like pallets and cases,
RFID x OMRON V700-D13P2 or stationary, such as point-of-sale devices used in
hardware x OMRON V700-H01 supermarkets. Readers are differentiated by their storage
capacity, processing capability, and the frequencies they can
read.
D. Summary of Case Study
From the above case studies, RFID can be implemented in III. METHODOLOGY
many ways and benefits our life. These three cases have one A. Hardware System Overview
thing in common that is accuracy. In case study 1, the smart
vacuum cleaner needs to find the correct location while The RFID robot is designed according to forklift which
RoboCart in case study 2 need to lead the customer to the used in warehouse. The chassis is built from aluminum
correct location. As for the case study 3 the robot need to structure and drive motors and sensors. The IR sensors are
identify the part correctly before assemble. This is similar to placed at bottom of front of the robot for quick response of
my project where I use RFID to identify the goods and place robot during line tracking. Figure 1 shows the structure of
it at correct location. RFID robot from side view and top view. All dimensions in
Figure 3.1 are in millimeters.
E. RFID
RFID is a system of storing and remotely retrieves data
using wireless technology operating with the 50 kHz to 2.5
GHz frequency range RFID technology comprises three
basic elements: the RFID tag, the RFID reader/writer and
the host line of business system
RFID does not require line-of-sight to operate for
communications between a tagged object which could be
almost anything including a car, merchandise, package, etc.
and a reader which is an electronic device used to capture
the RFID signal. Data encoded on the RFID tag can contain
a variety of information about the object including item
description through the use of an electronic product code
(EPC). The EPC is an electronic representation of a product, Figure 3.1: The structure of RFID robot from side view
which can include information about the product, and top view
manufacturer, and uniquely identify the product.

452 ~
 International Conference on Intelligent and Advanced Systems 2007

B. Control System Overview

RFID robot consists of one MCU as the main brain of the
control system. Two channel of inputs which user input and
sensors for line follower module. The system has one
channel of half duplex communication with the RFID reader
and three channels of output. One channel of output is to
motor driver for locomotion and one channel of output to
servo motor act as the mast of the forklift for lifting the
block. One channel of output is connected to indicator.
Figure 3.2 shows the block diagram of the overall working
system of RFID robot.

Figure 3.4: The flow of the simulation

Figure 3.2: RFID Robot control system block diagram

C. Simulation of RFID Robot

For simulation of the function of RFID robot, a small
white platform is built with black line on it for line tracking
purpose. The layout of platform is shown in Figure 3.3. The
conceptual of the simulation is detection, navigation and
locomotion. The robot and RFID tag are programmed for Figure 3.5: Blocks for the simulation
movement, navigation and identification tasks. The RFID
robot will move from starting zone to loading area follow D. Robot Locomotion Principles
the shortest possible track based on the pre-loaded program The motor driver functions to control the left and right
into the microcontroller that controls and navigates the robot motor. RFID robot uses L293D as motor driver. L293D is a
movement. It will then lift up the sample block. During 4.5 to 36V quad push-pull or dual H-bridge driver. The
lifting the robot will read the ID of the tag on the block. L293D has built in clamp diodes and can supply 600mA per
After identification of the block, the robot will move the channel. Two motors are mounted at both left and right of
block to destination of the loading block using line follower the RFID robot for driving and steering the robot purpose.
module. Three 13cmx12cmx10cm blocks are built as sample The direction of the motor will determine the direction of
in the simulation. Figure 3.5 show the blocks for the the robot. The robot will move forward or backward if the
simulation and Figure 3.4 show the flow of the simulation both motors are turning at same speed and same direction.
Meanwhile the robot wills self turn either left or right if the
motors turn at different direction. The robot will move to the
left if the right motor rotates forward while the left motor
stop.
E. Sensors and Navigation
The RFID robot uses line follower concept for navigation.
Three infra-red sensors are used for line follower. The line
follower is one of the self operating robot that follows a line
that drawn on the floor. The basic operations of the line
following is to detect line position using infra red sensors
mounted at front end of the robot. Figure 3.6 shows the
Figure 3.3: Layout of the platform detection of the sensors and figure 3.7 shows the actual
infra-red for the RFID robot. Table 3.2 shows the movement
of the robot regarding the value of the sensors. When the
sensors sense a black line, 0 will be sent to MCU. LM324 is
used for signal conditioning for infra-red sensors. LM324 is
low powered quad operational amplifiers. If positive input is
higher than the negative input the output will set high or 5V

~ 453
 International Conference on Intelligent and Advanced Systems 2007

otherwise low or 0V. These outputs are connected to MCU

processing and LED for indicator during debugging.

Figure 3.7: Detection of the Line Using Infra Red Sensor

F. Firmware Overview
The firmware for PIC microcontroller was written in
assembly language using MPLab 7.3. The finished firmware
was simulated and debugged using MPLab SIM and SIM
Uart1 to determine the problem before downloading the Figure 4.2: Actual layout of the PCB
machine codes into the PIC microcontroller. The machine
codes were burned into the PIC microcontroller using a low Sensors are functioned when there is obstruction in front
cost commercial PIC programmer from Cytron Enterprise. of the robot by distinguishing the its colour. It responds to
The software used to load the firmware to the PIC the instruction written to the microcontroller. Figure 4.4
microcontroller is WinPic800 shows the flow of the robot when doing self turn.

IV. ANALYSIS AND RESULT

A. Robot Structure
RFID robot is assembled using L-bar aluminum. Rivets,
screws and nuts are used to hold the joint between two bars
or more. Figure 4.2 shows the final version of RFID robot.

(a) (b) (c)

Figure 4.4: The flow of the robot when doing self turn.
(a) robot found junction
(b) move forward for 1 second
(c) turn the right wheel forward and left
wheel backward
The sensors can be determined whether it works or
otherwise by using a digital camera. Digital camera is able
(a) (b)
to capture the signal of the emitter where the wavelength of
Figure 4.1: Final version of RFID robot.
the infra red is beyond the eyesight of human-being. The
(a) Top view
sensors indicators are 3 LEDs. The LED will turn on when
(b) Side view
the infra red detect a white surface and turn off when detect
B. PCB Layout
black surface. Figure 4.5 shows the picture of sensor
The quality of the PCB is good. The size of the board can indicator when the robot is on the track.
be reduced and perfectly put on the robot because of double
sided technique is used. The double sided technique can
reduce the number of jumper. Large ground plane is
distributed at bottom of the PCB. 0.1 Micro-farad bypass
capacitors are connected to each supply and IC. The track of
the layout is designed at 16mils and clearance 32 mils.
Figure 4.2 shows the actual layout of the PCB.

Figure 4.5: Picture of sensor indicator when the robot is

on the track

454 ~
 International Conference on Intelligent and Advanced Systems 2007

C. Block Lifting (a) (b) (c)

Figure 4.8: RFID module
During the robot simulation, the RFID robot needs to lift
the sample of blocks. A programmed RFID tag is attached (a) RFID tag
to each block. It contains data among others are category, (b) Antenna
location, and rack. Once the data in the RFID tag is read by (c) RFID reader
the tag-reader on the robot, it will activate the robot
controller to navigate the robot to the proper place and
location for storage. The two L-bar at the front of the robot
act as the blade of the forklift and the servo motor will lift
the blade up and down to lift the block. In order to generate
PWM to the servo motor continuously, the function TMR0
Interrupt in PIC16F877A is used. The advantage of the
TMR0 Interrupt is that; MCU can generate the PWM signal
continuously without stopping the MCU task at that time.
The TMR0 will overflow for every 100μs. In order to create
a PWM with period 20ms, +5V will be generated by Figure 4.9: Testing RFID reader with the tag
PIC16F877A at RE2 pin for every 200 cycles. RE2 will turn The steps taken to communicate with RFID reader is
low to 0V after 15 cycles to create a 1.5ms pulse. The PWM listed below. The results of this communication are shown at
signal is measured using an oscilloscope. Figure 4.6 shows figure 4.10.
the PWM signal generated by RE to turn the servo motor 0
degree, 90 degree and 180 degree. Figure 4.7 shows the x Put the RFID tag above the antenna not more than
block lifted by the blade at 4.5cm height when 90 degree 6cm.
rotation of the servo motor. x Configure the PIC16F877A to serial communicate
with RFID reader at 115200 baud rate, 8 data bits,
no parity bit and 1 stop bit.
x Sending “AA00041006000012BB” in
Hexadecimal format to gain the tag ID from the
reader.
x Receive signal from the reader until “BB” is
received.
x Save the signal at file register in the PIC16F877A.
Case 1: Found tag
x “AA000C00010000250E0A07000007E0CCBB”
will be received by PIC16F877A where
“250E0A07000007E0” is the ID of the tag.
Figure 4.7: Block lifting at 4.5cm height x PIC16F877A will convert the 8 byte Hexadecimal
ID into ASCII.
D. Communication with RFID Reader
x Configure LCD.
The MCU communicate with the RFID reader via RS232. x Send the ID in ASCII format to LCD display.
MAX232 is chosen as the RS232 converter. The MAX232
is a dual driver or receiver that includes a capacitive voltage
Case2: No tag found
generator to supply voltage levels from a single 5-V supply.
Each receiver converts EIA-232-F inputs to 5-V TTL or x “AA0002018380BB” will be received by
CMOS levels. The PIC16F877A has a built in Universal PIC16F877A. This means that no tag found.
Synchronous Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter (USART) x PIC16F877A will configure the LCD.
function. This function is used to communicate half duplex x “NO TAG FOUND” will be display at LCD.
with RFID reader. The communication is done at 115200
bps, 8 data bits, no parity bit, 1 stop bit. The RFID robot
will read the ID of the RFID tag during loading the block.
The RFID module is shown in Figure 4.8. Due to the size of
the antenna, the maximum detection distance of RFID tag is
6 cm. Figure 4.9 shows the photo taken during testing the
RFID reader.

~ 455
 International Conference on Intelligent and Advanced Systems 2007

The application of the RFID robot is not limited only to

warehouse management. It also has a good potential in
hypermarket, building safety and manage and arrange books
in the library.
Recommendations
In order to apply RFID robot in real live application, its
must be upgraded. Some of the appropriate suggestions are
listed below. These suggestions can be continued in future
research to build a better design.
x Implement RFID robot with wireless
communication to the host computer.
x Add a database in the host computer
x Develop a graphical user interface for controlling
the robot.
x Implement GPS module into the RFID robot
Figure 4.11: LCD Display when reading RFID tag navigation system

(a) ID of the tag when tag is found REFERENCES

(b) RFID cannot find the tag
[1] Svetlana Domnitcheva. “Smart Vacuum Cleaner –
An Autonomous Location-Aware Cleaning
VII CONCLUSION Device” Switzerland: Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology (ETH) Zurich.
The main purpose of this project is to develop an [2] Chaitanya Gharpure, Vladimir Kulyukin, Aliasgar
autonomous robot with RFID application. The final version Kutiyanawala (2005). “A Robotic Shopping
of the product is a prototype of RFID robot. The design of Assistant for the Blind: A Pilot Study in a
the robot is similar to forklift. RFID robot’s locomotion Supermarket” Utah: Utah State University.
system and navigation system was implemented using PIC [3] Tomohiro UMETANI, Tatsuo ARAI, Yasushi
microcontroller. RFID robot uses the line follower module MAE, Kenji INOUE, Jun-ichiro MAEDA. “Parts
for navigation and locomotion. RFID robot is able lift up the and Packets Unification for Construction
item at certain height by generating PWM signal to servo Automation and Robots” Japan: Osaka University.
motor. Half duplex serial communication is done between [4] Predko,M (2003). “Programming Robot
PIC microcontroller and RFID reader. PIC microcontroller Controllers.” USA.: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
retrieves data from RFID reader and displays it at LCD. [5] Predko,M (1999). “Handbook of Microcontroller.”
USA.: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Discussion
[6] Predko,M (2000). “Programming and Customizing
RFID robot could be configured to perform various PICmicro Microcontroller.” USA.: McGraw-Hill
applications. However in prototyping stage, RFID robot Companies, Inc.
might not be able to accomplish all the tasks successfully. [7] McComb G.(2000) “Robot Builder Bonaza” New
The application of RFID robot has good potential in York: McGraw-Hill
warehouse management. It will replace the work and forklift [8] Sandin, P.E. (2003).”Robot Mechanism and
to arrange and store the goods. The robot will manage the Mechanical Devices Illustrated” New York:
goods automatically according to the database programmed McGraw-Hill
in the robot. This will save cost and time.

456 ~