A pioneer in IoT supply chain management utilizing RFID technology, the Ohio-based company’s latest patent provides greater control over RFID radiation patterns.

Surgere, a pioneer in the evolving i4.0 supply chain management, has been awarded US Patent Number 10,891,450 B2, Directional RFID Antenna System.

This new technology supports Surgere antenna assemblies for controlling radiation patterns or backscatter sensing zones. It may be used for identifying items such as an RFID system having a reader with multiple RFID tags. This is the fourth patent granted to Surgere over the past five years and three patents pending.

Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags can be used as an effective and reliable alternative to dead reckoning methods and GPS systems for mobile vehicle or robotic navigation. Surgere’s latest patent for RFID localization positions RFID tags at known locations that each generate a unique signal read by antennas mounted on a mobile vehicle. 

“The greatest problem when using RFID inside manufacturing facilities, or facilities housing metal or moving metal material, is that RFID is a radio signal. It radiates in a way that ‘reads’ many items that are not intended targets.  As a result, you can have many false positives that flaw your data,” states William Wappler, president and CEO of Surgere. “RFID is like any other IoT data capture technology; it does more harm than good if the data is not extremely accurate.  This patent follows our drive to maintain our high-level of data accuracy by providing greater control over RFID radiation patterns.”

The patent fits into Surgere’s continuous engineering work to expand their expertise with IoT supply chain solutions with devices that deliver unparalleled end-to-end supply chain analytics, high-fidelity data, and sensor-based solutions throughout a company’s entire enterprise. Companies that have tried or are trying to implement IoT technologies often find that the technology won’t deliver the accuracy or high-fidelity data that they require to successfully impact their business.

Wappler states that this “patent is focused on making RFID technology useful and accurate in a growing number of areas and bringing our data accuracy to a wider landscape of use cases.” By bringing together multiple forms of sensor technology, Surgere allows clients to “see” inventory and provide mapping of entire supply chains, thus allowing companies to make adjustments as needed in real time.