Thesis (MBA (Business Management))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: RFID technology may be the most capable technology to address the track and trace requirements within the Agri-food supply chain. RFID technology has become a prominent research area in recent times, with multiple benefits being promised and envisaged. The list of applications and deployments within the supply chain is numerous, with the ambassadors of this technology promising increased supply chain effectiveness, inventory management capabilities and enhanced information visibility. Deregulations within the South African citrus industry created changes to the internal structure of the industry, with the requirements of enhanced information visibility for traceability becoming a high priority. Current information structures and initiatives are providing the basic requirements for the changing business environment, with limitations to real-time and visible information for improved decision-making and planning initiatives. The purpose of this exploratory study was to identify the critical success factors for RFID technology deployment in supply chains in general and to identify the critical success factors relevant to the South African citrus industry. The study also researched the benefits and challenges of deploying RFID technology within the South African citrus industry, relating to citrus supply chain performance improvements of RFID adoption. The research indicates that certain limitations and challenges pertinent to the citrus industry exist, which would require industry level priority for successful implementation of RFID technology within the South African citrus industry. This study provides the South African citrus industry with a guideline to address the current non-collective management of information, information systems and requirements and collaboration initiatives. The use of this research should be of great assistance to the South African citrus industry role-players by providing a strategic framework for addressing information improvement initiatives. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: RFID tegnologie kan moontlik die mees bevoegde tegnologie wees om die naspeurbaarheid vereistes van n Agri-voedsel voorsiening ketting aan te spreek. RFID tegnologie is huidiglik 'n prominente navorsingsgebied, met beloofde meervoudige voordele. Die lys van aanwendings en toepassings binne die voorsiening ketting is veelvoudig, met beloftes van die ambassadeurs van die tegnologie, vir verbeterde voorsienings ketting doeltreffendheid, inventaris bestuur en verhoogde inligtings sigbaarheid. Deregulasie van die Suid Afrikaanse sitrus industrie het interne strukturuele veranderinge in die industrie teweeg gebring, met prioriteit fokus vir verhoogde inligting sigbaarheid vir naspeurbaarheid doeleindes. Huidige inligting strukture en initiatiewe verskaf die basiese grondslag vir die deurlopende veranderende besigheids omgewing, met intyd en sigbaarheids inligtings beperkinge, vir verbeterde besluitneming en beplanning initiatiewe. Die doel van die ondersoekende studies was om die generiese kritieke sukses faktore van RFID tegnologie implementering en die kritieke sukses faktore direk verwant tot die Suid Afrikaanse sitrus industrie te identifiseer. Die studie het ook die voordele en uitdagings van RFID implementering binne die Suid Afrikaanse sitrus industrie nagevors, spesifiek verwant tot die prestasie verbeterings van RFID implementering in die sitrus voorsienings ketting. Die navorsing dui aan dat sekere beperkinge en uitdagings spesifiek tot die sitrus industrie bestaan wat industrie vlak prioriteit vereis, vir suksevolle implementasie van RFID tegnologie binne die Suid Afrikaanse sitrus industrie. Die resultate van die studie verskaf die Suid Afrikaanse sitrus industrie met 'n riglyn om die uitdagings van die huidige nie-kollektiewe bestuur van inligting, inligting stelsels en vereistes en samewerkings initiatiewe aan te spreek. Die gebruik van die navorsing behoort van groot waarde te wees vir die rolspelers van die Suid Afrikaanse sitrus industrie, in die verskaffing van 'n strategiese raamwerk vir die aanspreking van inligting verbeterings intiatiewe.

This research address the problem of inferring, through Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) tracking data, the graph structures underlying social interactions in a group of rhesus macaques (a species of monkey). These social interactions are considered as independent affiliative and dominative components and are characterized by a variety of visual and auditory displays and gestures. Social structure in a group is an important indicator of its members’ relative level of access to resources and has interesting implications for an individual’s health. Automatic inference of the social structure in an animal group enables a number of important capabilities, including: 1. A verifiable measure of how the social structure is affected by an intervention such as a change in the environment, or the introduction of another animal, and 2. A potentially significant reduction in person hours normally used for assessing these changes. The behaviors of interest in the context of this research are those definable using the macaques’ spatial (x,y,z) position and motion inside an enclosure. Periods of time spent in close proximity with other group members are considered to be events of passive interaction and are used in the calculation of an Affiliation Matrix. This represents the strength of undirected interaction or tie-strength between individual animals. Dominance is a directed relation that is quantified using a heuristic for the detection of withdrawal and displacement behaviors. The results of an analysis based on these approaches for a group of 6 male monkeys that were tracked over a period of 60 days at the Yerkes Primate Research Center are presented in this Thesis.

The objective of this work is to enhance and advance sensing technologies with the design and development of novel radio frequency (RF) sensors based on far-field and near-field principles of the electromagnetic (EM) resonances. In the first part of this thesis, original design and development of a passive RF temperature sensor, a passive RF strain sensor, and a passive RF pressure sensor are presented. The RF temperature sensor is presented in Chapter 3. It is based on split ring resonators loaded with bimorph cantilevers. Its operating principles and equivalent circuits are discussed in Chapter 4, where the design concept is illustrated to be robust and highly adaptable to different sensing ranges, environments, and applicable to other type of sensing beyond temperatures. The passive RF strain sensor, based on a patch antenna loaded with a cantilever-integrated open loop, is presented in Chapter 5, where it is demonstrated to have the highest strain sensitivity in the same remote and passive class of sensors in the state-of-the-art. Chapter 6 describes the passive RF pressure sensor, which is based on a dual-band stacked-patch antenna that allows both identification and sensing to be embedded in its unique dual resonant responses. In the second part of this thesis, an original and first-of-its-kind RF transducer is presented that enables non-touch sensing of human fingers within 3 cm of proximity (based on one unit sensor cell). The RF transducer is based on a slotted microstrip patch coupled to a half-wavelength parallel-coupled microstrip filter operating in the frequency range of 6 – 8 GHz. The sensing mechanism is based on the EM near-field coupling between the resonator and the human finger. Fundamentally different from the electric field capacitive sensing, this new method of sensing, the first of its kind, based on near-field interference that produces a myriad of nonlinearities in the sensing response, can introduce new capabilities for the interface of electronic displays (the detection is based on pattern recognition). What set this sensor and its platform apart from previous proximity sensors and microwave sensing platforms is the low profile planar structure of the system, and its compatibility with mobile applications. The thesis provides both breadth and depth in the proposed design and development and thus presenting a complete research in its contributions to RF sensing.

This dissertation deals with the challenge of power utility in South Africa which is on proactive detection of fallen power line conductors and real time sagging measurement together with slipping of such conductors. Various methods which are currently used for sag detection were characterized and evaluated to the aim of the research. A mathematical reconstruction done to estimate the lowest point of the conductor in a span is presented. Practical simulations and application of radio frequency identification (RFID) for sag detection is attempted through matlab software. RFID radar system is then analyzed in different modes and found to give precision measurement for sag in real time as opposed to global positioning system (GPS) if one dimension of the tag assumed fixed on the power line. Lastly errors detected on the measurements are corrected using a trainable artificial neural network. A conclusion is made by making recommendations in the advancement of the research. / Electrical Engineering / M. Tech. (Electrical Engineering)

A necessidade da medicina por equipamentos eletrônicos portáteis, menores, confiáveis e baratos favorece o desenvolvimento de técnicas biotelemétricas passivas de monitoração nas aplicações biomédicas invasivas. Nesse trabalho são apresentados o desenvolvimento e o teste de um dispositivo sensor biotelemétrico passivo, que utiliza a tecnologia de identificação por radio freqüência - RFID (Radio Frequency Identification). O dispositivo desenvolvido, comumente chamado como tag, é comporto basicamente por três partes: a arquitetura RFID utilizada para baixa freqüência, a unidade de controle responsável pelo processamento dos dados e a unidade sensora responsável pela monitoração da pressão arterial. Como o tag e passivo, ou seja, não contém baterias, para que seja ativado é necessário um aparelho que faça sua energização e também decodifique os dados por ele transmitidos. Este aparelho que faz a leitura e envia um sinal para ativar o transponder é comumente chamado de leitora. A leitora utilizada neste projeto terá seu firmware adaptado de forma a processar o valor da pressão enviada pelo tag. São abordados neste trabalho tanto a modelagem teórica do sistema quanto a especificação prática dos componentes para os testes de validação. Na modelagem teórica são apresentados os modelos matemáticos comportamentais do sistema. Os resultados obtidos validam a metodologia utilizada para o desenvolvimento de um sensor RFID passivo que tem como finalidade mensurar a pressão arterial. / The need of medicine for portable electronic equipments smallers [sic], reliables [sic] and inexpensive supports the development of biotelemetry techniques passive monitoring in invasive biomedical applications. In this work are presents [sic] the development and testing of a passive biotelemetry sensor device, which uses the technology of Radio Frequency Identification - RFID. The developed device, commonly referred to as the tag, is basically composed of three parts: the RFID architecture used for low frequency, the control unit responsible for data processing and sensor unit responsible for monitoring blood pressure. As the tag is passive i.e. does not contain batteries to activate it, It [sic] is necessary a device that makes its energizing and also decode the data transmitted by it. This device that reads and sends a signal to activate the transponder is commonly called a reader. The reader used in this project will have its firmware adapted to handle the pressure value sent by the tag. This work also presents theoretical modeling of the system and the specification of components for practicing the validation tests. In theoretical modeling are presented mathematical models of system behavior. The results validate the methodology used for the development of passive RFID sensor that aims to measure blood pressure.

A necessidade da medicina por equipamentos eletrônicos portáteis, menores, confiáveis e baratos favorece o desenvolvimento de técnicas biotelemétricas passivas de monitoração nas aplicações biomédicas invasivas. Nesse trabalho são apresentados o desenvolvimento e o teste de um dispositivo sensor biotelemétrico passivo, que utiliza a tecnologia de identificação por radio freqüência - RFID (Radio Frequency Identification). O dispositivo desenvolvido, comumente chamado como tag, é comporto basicamente por três partes: a arquitetura RFID utilizada para baixa freqüência, a unidade de controle responsável pelo processamento dos dados e a unidade sensora responsável pela monitoração da pressão arterial. Como o tag e passivo, ou seja, não contém baterias, para que seja ativado é necessário um aparelho que faça sua energização e também decodifique os dados por ele transmitidos. Este aparelho que faz a leitura e envia um sinal para ativar o transponder é comumente chamado de leitora. A leitora utilizada neste projeto terá seu firmware adaptado de forma a processar o valor da pressão enviada pelo tag. São abordados neste trabalho tanto a modelagem teórica do sistema quanto a especificação prática dos componentes para os testes de validação. Na modelagem teórica são apresentados os modelos matemáticos comportamentais do sistema. Os resultados obtidos validam a metodologia utilizada para o desenvolvimento de um sensor RFID passivo que tem como finalidade mensurar a pressão arterial. / The need of medicine for portable electronic equipments smallers [sic], reliables [sic] and inexpensive supports the development of biotelemetry techniques passive monitoring in invasive biomedical applications. In this work are presents [sic] the development and testing of a passive biotelemetry sensor device, which uses the technology of Radio Frequency Identification - RFID. The developed device, commonly referred to as the tag, is basically composed of three parts: the RFID architecture used for low frequency, the control unit responsible for data processing and sensor unit responsible for monitoring blood pressure. As the tag is passive i.e. does not contain batteries to activate it, It [sic] is necessary a device that makes its energizing and also decode the data transmitted by it. This device that reads and sends a signal to activate the transponder is commonly called a reader. The reader used in this project will have its firmware adapted to handle the pressure value sent by the tag. This work also presents theoretical modeling of the system and the specification of components for practicing the validation tests. In theoretical modeling are presented mathematical models of system behavior. The results validate the methodology used for the development of passive RFID sensor that aims to measure blood pressure.

Orientador: Michel Daoud Yacoub / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Elétrica e de Computação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-27T01:29:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Barbin_ManoelVitorio_M.pdf: 5394528 bytes, checksum: f2e1dbef898be5580589baf0e2996f16 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015 / Resumo: A identificação de objetos através de ondas de radiofrequência ou RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) é uma tecnologia onde uma etiqueta, colocada em um objeto, tem suas informações lidas por um sistema de processamento remoto. Embora esta não seja uma tecnologia recente, sua utilização tem apresentado constante crescimento nos últimos anos. Atualmente, RFID é apontada com uma das principais tecnologias habilitadoras da internet do futuro, a Internet das Coisas, IoT (Internet of Things). Operando principalmente em faixas destinadas para o uso de aplicações médicas, científicas e industriais, ISM (Industrial, Scientific and Medical), sistemas de RFID apresentam diferentes características em função da banda de frequências utilizada. Em UHF (Ultra High Frequency), os sistemas de RFID que fazem uso de etiquetas passivas, são considerados como uma solução com bom desempenho para a identificação de objetos em distâncias que variam de alguns poucos centímetros a vários metros. Contudo, a distância de identificação depende do material que constitui um dado objeto. Por exemplo, metais estão entre os materiais que degradam significativamente o desempenho de sistemas de RFID em UHF, reduzindo a distância de identificação. Diversas soluções de etiquetas têm sido desenvolvidas com o objetivo de torná-las, o máximo possível, insensíveis à presença do metal. Alguns diferentes tipos de antenas foram propostas, entre as quais se destacam as que possuem um plano-terra inerente a sua estrutura, como a de microfita e a planar de F-Invertido, PIFA (Planar Inverted-F Antenna). Uma revisão destas soluções é realizada nesta dissertação. Este trabalho descreve o projeto de uma etiqueta passiva de RFID em UHF, baseado em uma PIFA, para identificação de objetos metálicos colocados em distâncias maiores que oito metros, aproximadamente. O principal objetivo de uso da etiqueta é na identificação de objetos com razoáveis dimensões tais como containers, chapas, canos, etc., frequentemente encontrados em ambientes industriais e armazéns de estocagem. Uma forma diferente de alimentação do sinal de radiofrequência para a antena é desenvolvida. Simulações eletromagnéticas e medições indicam um bom desempenho da etiqueta em uma ampla faixa de frequências, que abrange as principais bandas de operação de RFID em UHF no mundo / Abstract: The identification of objects by radio waves or RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is a technology where a tag is attached to an object and its information read by a remote processing system. Although it is not a new technology, its use has shown steady growth in recent years. Currently, RFID is identified as one of the main enabling technologies of the future Internet, the Internet of Things, IoT. Operating in the bands intended primarily for use in industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) applications, RFID systems have different characteristics depending on the frequency band used. In the UHF (Ultra High Frequency) band, RFID systems using passive tag are considered as a solution with good performance to identify objects at distances ranging from a few centimeters to several meters. However, the distance of identification depends on the material that the object is made of. For example, metals are materials which can significantly degrade the performance of UHF RFID systems by reducing the distance of identification. Several solutions for tags have been developed in order to make them, as far as possible, insensitive to the presence of metal. Some different types of antennas were proposed, among which are those with a ground plane inherent in its structure, such as the microstrip antenna and the PIFA (Planar Inverted-F Antenna). A review of these solutions is carried out in this dissertation. This document describes the design of a passive RFID tag in UHF, based on a PIFA for identification of metallic objects placed at distances greater than eight meters or so. The main use of the tag is to identify objects with medium or large dimensions such as containers, plates, pipes, etc., often found in industrial environments and storage warehouses. A different kind of RF feeder to the antenna is developed. Electromagnetic simulations and measurements indicate a good tag performance in a wide frequency band, which covers the main RFID UHF operation bands in the world / Mestrado / Telecomunicações e Telemática / Mestre em Engenharia Elétrica

M. Tech. (Department of Process Control and Computer Systems, Faculty of Engineering and Technology), Vaal University of Technology. / Radio Frequency Identification Technology (RFID) technology is increasingly being used in multiple applications due to its low cost and ability to provide a high quality of identification. The cost benefit of RFID system is seen in the reduction in labor required to perform routine tasks such as inventory. With RFID, inventory-related tasks can be done in substantially less time compared to other commonly used auto-identification systems. Recent research has illustrated the application of RFID in multiple application scenarios. RFID can be used for real-time patient identification and monitoring in hospitals, but also for product expiration-date management in retail industries. Some enterprises in South Africa uses a combination of RFID technology and Internet of Things (IoT) to detect misplaced products and to detect low stock levels. Furthermore, RFID is also used for inventory management in libraries as discussed in this dissertation. In this dissertation, a combination of RFID and ZigBee technologies was used to reduce the time spent to perform inventory in libraries. An inventory management system was designed, simulated and built in order to count and locate books inside a library hence improving inventory process time in libraries. The overall results were satisfactory which lead to the achieving of the objectives set in this study.

Yes / A feasibility study of a novel configuration for a super-wide impedance planar antenna is presented based on a 2 × 2 microstrip patch antenna (MPA) using CST Microwave Studio. The antenna comprises a symmetrical arrangement of four-square patches that are interconnected to each other with cross-shaped high impedance microstrip lines. The antenna array is excited through a single feedline connected to one of the patches. The proposed antenna array configuration overcomes the main drawback of conventional MPA with a narrow bandwidth that is typically <5%. The antenna exhibits a super-wide frequency bandwidth from 20 GHz to 120 GHz for S11 < −15 dB, which corresponds to a fractional bandwidth of 142.85%. The antenna’s performance of bandwidth, impedance match, and radiation gain were enhanced by etching slots on the patches. With the inclusion of the slot, the maximum radiation gain and efficiency of the MPA increased to 15.11 dBi and 85.79% at 80 GHz, which showed an improvement of 2.58 dBi and 12.54%, respectively. The dimension of each patch antenna was 4.3 × 5.3 mm2 . The results showed that the proposed MPA is useful for various existing and emerging communication systems such as ultra-wideband (UWB) communications, RFID systems, massive multiple-output multiple-input (MIMO) for 5G, and radar systems. / This work was partially supported by the Innovation Program under grant agreement H2020-MSCA-ITN-2016 SECRET-722424 and financial support from the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) under grant EP/E022936/1.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a new technology which allows people to identify objects automatically but there is a suspicion that, if people are tracked, their privacy may be infringed. This raises questions about how far this technology is acceptable and how privacy should be protected. It is also initiated a discussion involving a wide range of technical, philosophical, political, social, cultural, and economical aspects. There is also a need to consider the ethical and theological perspectives. This dissertation takes all its relevant directions from a Judeo-Christian theological perspective. On one side the use of technology is considered, and on the other side the value of privacy, its infringements and protection are investigated. According to Jewish and Christian understanding human dignity has to be respected including the right to privacy. As a consequence of this RFID may only used for applications that do not infringe this right. This conclusion, however, is not limited to RFID; it will be relevant for other, future surveillance technologies as well. / Philosophy & Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Theological ethics)