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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Wooster, Ohio » Application Technology Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #390087
Research Project: Sustainable Production and Pest Management Practices for Nursery, Greenhouse, and Protected Culture Crops

Location: Application Technology Research

Title: The relationship between drone speed and the number of flights in RFID tag reading for plant inventory

Author
item QUINO, JANNETTE - Clemson University
item MAJA, JOE - Clemson University
item ROBBINS, JIM - University Of Arkansas
item Owen Jr, James - Jim
item CHAPPELL, MATTHEW - Virginia Tech
item CAMARGO, JOAO - Embrapa
item FERNANDEZ, R - Michigan State University

Submitted to: Drones
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/17/2021
Publication Date: 12/22/2021
Citation: Quino, J., Maja, J.M., Robbins, J., Owen Jr, J.S., Chappell, M., Camargo, J.N., Fernandez, R.T. 2021. The relationship between drone speed and the number of flights in RFID tag reading for plant inventory. Drones. 6(1). Article 2. https://doi.org/10.3390/drones6010002.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/drones6010002

Interpretive Summary: Accurate inventory allows for more precise forecasting, including profit projections, easier monitoring, shorter outages, and fewer delivery interruptions. This paper extends our previous work with drones and RFID by evaluating: the number of flights needed to read all tags deployed in the field, the number of scans per pass, and the optimum drone speed for reading tags. The drone flight plan was divided into eight passes from southwest to northwest and back at a horizontal speed of 2.2, 1.7, and 1.1 meters per second (mps)at a vertically fixed altitude. The results showed that speed did not affect the number of new tags scanned (p-value > 0.05). The first 3 flights result in the most unique tags scanned. The time required to scan tags repeatedly is 0.04 seconds per tag, and the minimum distance is 0.064 meters per tag at a speed of 1.67 mps. New tags can be scanned in the first five passes at a percentage between 70 to 95 percent. The first pass results the most readings, and then gradually decreases as the number of passes increases. The decline is attributable to a reduction in the quantity of new scannable tags. This technology is a potential tool in obtaining automated, aerial based nursery inventory data. Once the pandemic has subsided, we will conduct the field testing in large nurseries in the near future.

Technical Abstract: Accurate inventory allows for more precise forecasting, including profit projections, easier monitoring, shorter outages, and fewer delivery interruptions. Moreover, the long hours of physical labor involved over such a broad area and the effect of inefficiencies could lead to less accurate inventory. Unreliable data and predictions, unannounced stoppages in operations, production delays and delivery, and a considerable loss of profit can all arise from inaccurate inventory. This paper extends our previous work with drones and RFID by evaluating: the number of flights needed to read all tags deployed in the field, the number of scans per pass, and the optimum drone speed for reading tags. The drone flight plan was divided into eight passes from southwest to northwest and back at a horizontal speed of 2.2, 1.7, and 1.1 meters per second (mps) at a vertically fixed altitude. The results showed that speed did not affect the number of new tags scanned (p-value > 0.05). Results showed that 90% of the tags were scanned in less than four trips (eight passes) at 1.7 mps. Based on these results, the system can be used for large-scale nursery inventory and other industries that use RFID tags in outdoor environments.