RFID Based Theft Detection System for Automobile Parts

Vehicle parts theft is an area of crime where less attention is being paid and weak countermeasures are being used in Sri Lanka. A survey has been conducted to find the need of an enhanced vehicle security system which can detect theft and authenticity of vehicle parts, and also to identify which vehicle parts are being commonly stolen in Colombo, Sri Lanka. In consonance with the results of the survey, it was obvious of the need for such vehicle security system. This research paper presents the design, implementation and testing of the prototype model that has been built as the proposed solution to prevent or minimize vehicle parts theft and detect the authenticity of the vehicle parts, if original parts of the vehicle were replaced with aftermarket parts without the user's consent. Theft and authenticity of vehicle parts are detected using RFID technology in the developed prototype model. To make this vehicle security system an affordable solution to the vehicle owners, a single low-cost RFID reader is used and an anti-collision mechanism is built based on TDM and signal relaying, as a cost cutting strategy to read multiple RFID tags.