ZigID: Improving visibility in industrial environments by combining WSN and RFID

Abstract

The objective of this work is to provide decision-making processes with an updated/real picture of the mobile resources in industrial environments through a constant feedback of information. The combination of identification technologies and wireless sensor networks (WSN) is proposed as a key development to guarantee an accurate and timely supply of online information regarding the localization and tracking of the mobile wireless devices. This approach uses a cooperative and distributed localization system, called ZigID, which is a WSN based on a Zigbee network with radio frequency identification (RFID) active tags as end nodes. The WSN can recover not only the ID information stored at the tags attached to mobile resources, but also any other useful data captured by specific sensors for acceleration, temperature, humidity and fuel status. This paper also shows the development of ZigID, including devices and information flows, as well as its implementation in ground handling operations at the Ciudad Real Central Airport, Spain.