Physical positions detection using RFID for on/off sensors applications in harsh environments

This paper presents the design of a system allowing us to monitor physical position of equipment's in electrical distribution switchboards. We obtained good performances by combining standard RFID (radio frequency identification) products and simple mechanical devices. By adopting a pragmatic approach and taking account of propagation in harsh environment, we finally realized a simple and quite low cost on/off RFID sensor for circuit breakers. Experimental results are confirmed and optimized using theoretical predictions. In addition, this principle could be used to monitor equipment's with multiple positions (2 and more) involved