GPS World, August 2009

TRANSPORTATION Freight Tracking GNSS plus RFID Seamless Tracking Combining 04 millimeter RFID tracking chips and GPS enabled handheld reader terminals can correct the lack of certainty clarity and certification in international goods tracking at every step along the way from producer to consumer Koichi Chino Dinesh Manandhar and Ryosuke Shibasaki Center for Spatial Information Science The University of Tokyo W hether consisting of hazardous materials valuable goods or simply consumer destined merchandise shipments currently cannot be tracked with a meaningful degree of precision continuously and globally Such seamless tracking required for safeguarding against international terrorism requires a new level of technology integration The Supply Chain Management Implementation System described here seeks to achieve both expansion of throughput and reduction of lead time while adding transparency and certainty to the whole process It would further enable the tracking of commercial products below the pallet level down to the product item level by either purchase order number or a customized unique number This process however requires universal criteria such as both timestamp and position stamp and industrial standardization Many logistic tracking systems operate in countries around the world However each system operates in a closed fashion without interoperability These commercial systems work well as far as tracking items for their internal central control system External customers can also trace their packages in transit by Internet using bar code or other tracking numbers For example Federal Express FedEx operates many variations of its core tracking system encompassing shipping tracking website management and business solutions including in some cases mapped location display by GPS tracking but the FedEx system is limited to package envelope or office printing services Modified materials such as foodstuffs cannot be handled in this system In another example Hitachi Information Control Solutions Ltd operates Logistics Solutions which consists of four systems back end subsystem transportation management subsystem container cargo load planning subsystem and warehouse management subsystem Tag Memory Info A Info B Info C Info D Info E Import Customs Common Info Info A Factory Info B Dist Country ID Serial No Product ID Pi Ti Value added ID Pi 1 Ti 1 p FIGURE 1 Database image Problems To realize seamless tracking technology between different countries strict adherence to a standard methodology will be critical All major countries should accept the methodology This approach can solve the following current drawbacks The uncertainty of the tracking route from producer to consumer through the logistics chain including valueadded resellers from country to country The lack of visibility and quality control of the tracking route from export country to import country via checkpoints as immigration customs and various means of transportation The lack of authorized agency certification of the tracking route To solve these problems we propose a basic concept of seamless tracking technology which will encomass the equipment system and methodology integrating identification communication and navigation functions In this article we define seamless tracking technology as Spatial The object is traced indoors and outdoors Unique The object has a unique identifier attached by tag Autonomous The tag has information of identification updated time and updated position United The tracking extends worldwide Standardized The tracking tool is GNSS and RFID combined There are many tags such as barcode 2 dimensional symbol QRCode magnetic card IC card and data matrix for tracking purposes Each has its advantages and liabilities There are several criteria to evaluate each tag the data limit that can GPS World August 2009 www gpsworld com 30