Customer Need

To track, in real time, pallets, boxes and/or inventory items as they are unloaded from the truck through the dock door. Fork-lift mounted and/or fixed read stations on either side of the dock door for incoming and inventoried item tracking. Long range (> 15 feet) for warehoused item ID, location and tracking through the entire manufacturing/ship process at the other end.

Sentinel Custom Solution

* 433 or 900 MHz readers, RS-485 network
* Roaming, handheld readers
* Passive tags with multiple form factors and packaging schema
* Dipole/double dipole and propagation tag antennas
* Multiple antenna arrays with multiplexing schema
* Antenna portal/tunnel for conveyor application
* Auto or software controlled dynamic tuning
* IP-65 class NEMA enclosures
* Custom keyboard/display units
* 900 MHz or 2.4 GHz wireless modems
* Disk-on-chip (HDD)
* RPC/Oracle DB interfaces
* Pentium SBC Win-NT servers
* Embedded firmware and application software

System Performance Benchmarks

* 10 mph asset/item velocity for RFID read/writes
* > 99 % Read accuracy (compared to 85% with barcode)
* > 12 feet read with single antenna (gate) and 20 feet with dual powered antennas
* Pallet-at-a-time read/write capability
* > 500 fpm on a conveyor belt, with tunnel (3-D) antennas
* 5 to 10 feet location accuracy, with software triangulation and sign-posts
* Active tags provide > 100 feet range and 50+ mph capability (5V battery, > 5 yr. life)
* Truly ruggedized readers/antennas/cables
* Documented productivity improvements over barcode

Other Potential Applications

* Incoming, WIP inventory tracking
* Warehouse management (Item ID, locate and track)
* Equipment/asset ID, locating and tracking
* Fleet/yard management