Development of Inventory Checking System based on

UAV and RFID in Open Storage Yard

Sung Moon Bae, Kwan Hee Han, Chun Nam Cha and Hwa Yong Lee
dept. of Industrial and Systems Engineering/ERI
GyeongSang National University
Jinju, South Korea
{bsm, hankh, cncha}@gnu.ac.kr, [email protected]

Abstract—Many companies monitor status of product and intermittently autonomously, by onboard computers [2]. Drones
detect storing or releasing of stocks using RFID technology. The developed for military purposes such as reconnaissance,
actual status of inventory, however, is sometimes different from surveillance and bombing missions, and have been expanded to
the recorded data due to many reasons. To prevent the mismatch various fields like imaging in the private market, agriculture,
between real world and information system, companies investigate logistics market [3]. In this paper, we propose a new approach
stocks regularly and adjust the status of information system. In for stock investigation in outdoor using UAV and RFID to
open storage yard, manual inventory checking is very hard work overcome some limitations of the legacy approaches.
and automated system requires much cost. In this paper, we
proposed new approach to investigate open storage yard using This paper is composed of four chapters as follows. Chapter
unmanned aerial vehicle and RFID. It reduces cost of inventory 2 shows related work of inventory control based on RFID and
checking and mismatch of real world and cyber world. We also UAV application. New approach for inventory checking is
implemented a prototype system to show the feasibility. described and prototyping system is also showed in chapter 3.
Chapter 4 concludes this paper and lists some limitation of this
Keywords— unmanned aerial vehicle; RFID; inventory approach.
checking; open storage yard
II. RELATED WORKS
I. INTRODUCTION
Many papers have studied the pros and cons of RFID, and
Radio frequency identification technology (RFID) has yet there are many papers introduce a variety of cases [4-6]. Roh
moved from obscurity into mainstream applications that help et al. identified cost savings, supply chain visibility, and new
speed the handling of manufactured goods and materials. RFID process creation as the three key benefits of RFID adoption and
enables identification from a distance, and unlike earlier bar- then identified the ‘‘scale’’ and ‘‘scope’’ of RFID
code technology [1]. Many companies adopt RFID technology implementation as the key dimensions of RFID adoption [5].
to monitor flow of factory and manage the inventory. An Based on these, they proposed a four-category classification for
inventory system records current status of product and parts. The the type of RFID adoption. Tan suggested the application of
actual status of inventory, however, is sometimes different from RFID technology in the warehouse management information [7].
the recorded status due to many reasons. To prevent the He also presented in detail the specific application of RFID
mismatch of real world and information system, companies technology in warehouse management system. Rekik et al.
investigate stocks regularly and adjust the status of information applied RFID to reduce inventory inaccuracy in retail stores due
system. to theft [8].
A stock investigation using RFID works well in relatively Researches on the use of drones, drone control technology,
small space, but has some difficulty in outdoor inventory and industry outlook in private sector are in progress. Amazon
management where companies produce large volume products. has developed ‘Amazon Prime Air’ – drone delivery system in
There are two ways to apply RFID in open inventory yard. The 2013 and performs flight tests. Pusan city is planning to manage
first is that an inspector checks RFID tagged stock using portable city using drone [9]. Choi et al. studied how to lead the blind
reader. In this case, the inspector should go around whole yard. using drone instead of guide dog [10].
So it requires a lot of time for stock investigation. The second is
to install fixed RFID reader on the outdoor yard. This approach III. IMPLEMENTATION OF INVENTORY CHECKING SYSTEM
detects all stocks in real-time, but requires too much investment The proposed inventory checking system based on drone and
cost for the equipment because many fixed RFID readers should RFID is shown in Fig. 1. It is composed of three major
be installed to cover all wide outdoor yard. components. The first is a RFID reader that detects RFID tags of
An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a products distributed outdoor inventory yard. It stores the
drone, is an aircraft without a human pilot aboard. The flight of detected tag id, location, time, and product count.
UAVs may operate with various degrees of autonomy: either
under remote control by a human operator, or fully or

978-1-5090-5493-0/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE

 Fig. 3. Screen of inventory checking system

Fig. 1. Proposed approach for inventory checking  Normality: a registered product is found in right place.
The second is a drone that navigates whole outdoor yard  Location error: a registered product is found in different
manually or automatically. The last is server program for location.
inventory checking that compares database values and real
product data.  Missing: a registered product is not found.

IV. IMPLEMENTATION OF INVENTORY CHECKING SYSTEM  Unregistered: an unregistered product is found.

In this research, we used a portable PDA(AT-880) as a RFID The server program is developed using java and MySQL
reader and a data collector. It is operated on Windows CE 5.0 server. It lists all product of inventory database and compares
and contains a UHF RFID reader that uses 860Mhz ~ 960Mhz each states defined in above. Abnormal state is highlighted as
frequency band. We used the passive tag, because it is very shown in Fig. 3.
cheap and small. It also has almost permanent life-cycle.
V. CONCLUESION
We use a drone made by DJI company. The model of the We proposed new approach for inventory checking in open
drone is Phantom 2 vision. Its weight is 1242g and maximum stock yard using UAV and RFID technology. It will decrease the
speed is 15 meter per second. It uses 2412MHz ~ 2462MHz as mismatch between information stored in inventory system and
a communication channel that reaches to 700 meter. The drone real world data, also reduce labor cost of investigating stock and
with a portable PDA moves around the whole open storage yard. equipment cost for the system.
We developed a data collection program to detect and save
tag information. Functions of the program are as follows: start REFERENCES
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Fig. 2. Screen shot of mobile RFID reader detecting tag