Autonomous System for UHF RFID Signal Measurement in Industrial Environment

Deployment of UHF RFID technology in the industrial environment is not easy to perform because of the heterogeneity of the environment, the propagation of the high frequency radio signal, the interference, and the associated time-consuming implementation. The paper deals with deployment and evaluation of developed autonomous system for measurement of UHF RFID signals in industrial environment. Such a system allows, in defined 3D real-world locations, to obtain autonomously information about the actual Received Signal Strength Indicator of the moving RFID tag (Etalon) that is registered while investigated with each antenna of RFID reader. A corridor was chosen as an experimental area, and Received Signal Strength Indicator was evaluated by both, simulation and measurement methods. The results show a statistically significant relationship between measured and modeled Received Signal Strength Indicator in dBm at the 99% confidence level. The presented autonomous system can contribute to a more comprehensive analysis of measuring the electromagnetic field emitted by the UHF RFID antennas in various industrial environments.