A Fieldbus-Based Approach for the Integration between RFID and Industrial Control System

RFID is infiltrating the core of the manufacture industry step by step. It collects realtime data of tags attached on the products in batches, which ensures matter-flow be consistent with info-flow. Integrated with MES and DCS, RFID make the production process be visible and punctual. Despite possibly being a subversive technology for manufacture industry, RFID has not shows its great superiorities. All the same, RFID is posing many challenges for extensive applications at industrial production: i) RFID donrt integrates with control system so tightly and efficiently that RFID shows unreliable and inefficient to the existent systems at workshop; ii)The existent RFID interrogators almost do not support network-connecting at the equipment layer; iii)There exist various tags with various protocols and criterions which desires intelligent interrogators with the capacity of supporting multi-protocols. Thus, a general approach of RFID applications in industry is needed to efficiently automate the integration between RFID system with the control systems and business applications. In this paper, we put forward a fieldbus-based approach for the integration between RFID with the control system. RFID control unit connects with other instruments (meters, PLC, etc.) to composing a bottom fieldbus network, and it transmits the collected data to control system by fieldbus instantly. RFID integration and application panel runs at the workshop monitoring layer, it executes the configuration of the unit and userrs protocol, communicates with business applications at the top layer, and monitors the state of the whole RFID system. According to new approach, RFID application adopts the mode of closed-loop band together open-loop but the simplex closed-loop mode, and RFID equipments transmit data to the control system by the fieldbus network directly, which evidently reduces the frequency of communication among the RFID equipments, control system and business applications. The approach makes RFID play the real role of info-carrier, and reliable and real-time data transmission could be realized, then RFID really becomes the vivid leyer of control system. Thereby, the declarative approach should be a feasible resolution to the problem above.

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