Craig Thompson and Joe Hoag

1
UA RFID Center RFID Agent Middleware Project

• Craig Thompson and Joe Hoag
• cwt, jhoag_at_uark.edu, 479-575-6519
• Department of Computer Science and Computer
  Engineering
• University of Arkansas
• Industrial Advisory Board Meeting 1/26/06

2
CSCE RFID Research

• CSCE Faculty
• Craig Thompson middleware, data grids, sensor
  nets, privacy
• Dale Thompson RFID security, survivable
  networking, performance monitoring
• Pat Parkerson hardware, interference
• Jia Di hardware TBD
• CSCE Students
• RFID Center manager Justin Patton
• RFID Agent Middleware class Joe Hoag, Kevin
  Robinson, Taneem Ibrahim, Maggie Vorabouth, Roopa
  Bheemavaram, Sidhartha Samanta, Jonathan
  Ratcliff, Matt Baker, Kalyan Jonnalagedda, James
  McCartney, Linh Ngo, Anil Kumar Vangari Balraj,
  Ravi Gunda, John Allison, Colby Backes, Darrin
  Calamese, Vinitha Reddy Chintaphally, David
  Bradley Cromhout, Nicholaus Jones, Nabil Kawas,
  Justin Patton, Reid Phillips, Lei Jiang
• Senior Design class
• Smart Refrigerator Jeremy Gillean, Terry
  McDowell, Kevin Robinson
• Parking Monitoring Andrew Riggins, Scott Estes,
  Chris Mueller
• Natural Language Interface Kyle Neumeier, Nabil
  Lehlou, Jason Ross, Yassine Rahmi

3
RFID Center
R RFID Reader
Pallet/Container/Item
R
R
R
R
Loading dock
R
Camera
R
R
R
R
Conveyor belt
R
R
Pallets
Storage
R
R
R
R
Distribution Center
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RFID Testing

• ltRFID-Testgt
• ltConfigurationgt
• ltPalletsgt lt/Palletsgt
• ltFacilitygt lt/Facilitygt
• ltTest-Proceduregt steps lt/Test-Proceduregt
• lt/Configurationgt
• ltResultsgt
• ltTag-Readsgt ltTag-Readsgt
• lt/Resultsgt
• ltAnalysisgt
• lt/Analysisgt
• lt/RFID-Testgt

5
Enterprise Integration Architecture (EiA)
Research Project

Reader2
Conveyor Belt
Tag Printer
Reader1
Camera
Device Wrappers
agent wrappers
XML Commands
XML Data
XML/WSDL messages sent between agents

DBMS
GUI Dashboard

• Uses a Service Oriented Architecture
• Compatible with WSDL

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Main Ideas

• Define/document/debug a Test Procedure for RFID
  product testing
• Develop a service-oriented architecture for RFID
  / warehouse automation including testing
  automation
• Use XML/WSDL messaging over IP
• Add/remove devices on XML bus
• At UA RFID Center - keep track of
  pallet/container, equipment, and facility
  configuration record results of tests provide
  analysis.
• Scalable - could plug into warehouse. Open
  source.

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System-Level Agent Architecture
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RFID Application -- Reader
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RFID Application -- Database
10
Accomplishments (Summer - Fall 2005)

• General-purpose agent architecture developed.
• RFID application begun
• Reader Agents (Gen 1)
• Database Agent, RFID database schema
• GUIs
• Test Interface
• Fielded for test/use at RFID Center. Rated
  highly in terms of ease of use and utility needs
  richer GUI, Gen2 reader support, minor bugs fixed.

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Near-Term Goals(Spring 2006)

• Add Gen2 reader support
• Improve GUIs be able to change/delete reader
  data, company data, test data, etc...
• Add support for tag-printer agent
• Improve analysis queries and GUI
• Enable multiple concurrent instances of
  application
• Fix bugs as they are identified
• Performance testing Where are the edges?

12
Longer-Term Goals

• Tackle scalability issues
• Add menu-based natural language interface (MBNLI)
  for query creation and other logic
• Add intelligence-on-the-fly capability to agent
  architecture
• Release architecture, RFID application as
  open-source software