RFID Radar to locate children in danger zones
All parents are generally consumed with child safety worries from morning to night-time. Risks are obviously mitigated through installation of safety precautions in the home, care and indeed workplace. One dominant worry that is uppermost in the mind of persons in charge of young children in the home have and public places where children frequent (e.g. crèches, schools, fun areas etc) is the case where a child wanders off outside the building. Here the worry is that the child will find its way to water, the busy roads or into the arms of an abductor.
This project is concerned with the implementation of a child monitoring system whereby children are tagged with long-range and short-range RFID tags. An RFID radar is used to provide 2D position location with identity, range and tracking information thus keeping us informed of each child’s location and alerts if a child enters an unsanctioned area.
The RFID-radar Development model system comprises a reader, 3 high gain patch antennas and 20 transponders. The system operates at UHF frequencies in the bands allocated for RFID, using electric coupled propogation properties to transfer energy from the reader to the transponder and from the transponder back to the reader.
The system works through having the RFID-radar measure the path length for signals travelling from the transponder to the reader to determine range. (Each kid has two transponders). By comparing signals arriving at two identical receivers with closely spaced antennas, the reader is able to determine the angle of arrival of the signals from the transponder and hence the direction of that transponder from the reader.
Task
First of all, visit the RFID equipment manufacturers handbook here and read about the Trolleyponder/EcoTag RFID-radar Development model. I have already set the system up so all you need to do is to become familiar with the basic operation of the radar and the tags.
Please not that due to UU ethical guidelines - you are not expected or required (or allowed) to actually work with children for this project. You can test the tags on you fellow students instead.....