Improvement of full-duplex RFID tag detection for live stock identification and tracking during transport

食品安全对加拿大人的健康和经济都至关重要。 从农场到餐桌的动物可追溯性是确保这种安全的一个重要手段，它限制了疾病在牲畜中的传播，并迅速遏制了可能进入食物链的任何受污染肉类产品的传播。射频识别（RFID）技术被广泛用于跟踪牲畜从出生到屠宰场。然而，虽然这项技术使跟踪变得容易，但在大型金属拖车运输期间跟踪牛的使用缺乏所需的鲁棒性和可靠性。实际上，在牛上船和下船的阶段期间，动物引起拖车振动，这又引起RFID读取器故障并且错过阅读动物的标签。由于政府可追溯性法规要求阅读所有标签的成功率为100%，因此必须解决这个问题，并在大规模部署这项技术之前找到解决方案。本项目的目标是与我们的工业合作伙伴Argi-Traçablité Interrational和Epsilia合作，隔离导致RFID读取器故障的机制，了解其基本物理原理，并开发适当的解决方案，以保证100%的读取成功率。提出了一种结合电磁仿真、信号处理和实验振动测试的混合方法。

Food safety is of paramount importance to Canadians for health as well as for economical reasons. Animal traceability from farms to food tables is one important mean to ensure such safety by limiting the spread of disease among livestock and by quickly containing the spread of any contaminated meat products that may find their way into the food chain. RadioFrequency IDentification (RFID) technology is extensively used to track livestock from birth to the slaughterhouse. However, while this technology makes tracking easy, its use in tracking cattle during transport in large metallic trailers lacks the robustness and reliability required. Indeed, during the phases of embarking and disembarking of cattle, the animals cause the trailers to vibrate which in turn causes the RFID reader to malfunction and miss reading the animal's tag. Because government traceability regulations require a 100% success rate in reading all tags, this problem must be addressed and a solution must be found before this technology can be deployed on a wide scale. The goal of the present project is to work with our industrial partners, Argi-Traçablité Intenrational and Epsilia, to isolate the mechanisms that cause RFID reader failure, to understand their underlining physics and to develop proper solutions that will guarantee 100% read success rate. A hybrid approach combining electromagnetic simulation, signal processing and experimental vibration testing is proposed to meet the stated objective.