Auburn University RFID Lab Opens Aviation and Aeronautics Lab

By Claire Swedberg

The site serves as a subsection for testing and developing plans for using RFID or IoT technology to manage assets and inventory aboard and around aircraft and spacecraft.

Feb 20, 2023RFID Journal LIVE! 2023 will feature end-user companies discussing RFID's use in various industries, as well as exhibitors offering tagging solutions for multiple applications. To learn more, visit the event's website .

To meet the growing needs of a variety of industries for radio frequency identification (RFID) technology support, the Auburn University RFID Lab is opening a new aviation and aeronautics subsection. The goal, according to Auburn University, is to serve customers in both commercial airlines and commercial transportation aircraft, as well as aerospace applications for NASA and private spaceflight companies.

The RFID Lab is expanding to an institute model, says Justin Patton, the lab's director, who adds, "We'll have several centers or labs with independent directors and advisory boards." The existing Retail ID Lab will continue to operate with its current board structure. "We're also exploring expanding into food and logistics as independent focus units." There are other changes underway as well, Patton notes, and the broader focus of the institute and labs will be on all sensor technologies, not just RFID.

The Aviation and Aerospace ID Lab, which opened last year under the leadership of managing director Tom Rogers, is now preparing to receive clients that include airlines, as well as aerospace and space agencies. Rogers, a former pilot and a 2012 Auburn University graduate, will lead efforts to conduct experiments and testing of RFID and other wireless technologies for customers, with the help of the university's graduate and undergraduate students. He brings a background in flight training operations and business development at Phoenix East Aviation and Falcon Aviation Academy.

The Auburn University RFID Lab has served organizations in the aviation and aerospace sectors by testing products and specific applications before the technologies were adopted. The number of applications has grown, and more deployments have been undertaken in recent years. One key application for RFID in the aviation sector is baggage tracking. Numerous airlines are either testing or deploying RFID at airports, and they are reading baggage tags' built-in RFID tags automatically as suitcases or other personal items are received, sorted, routed and transported on a passenger's flight.

Justin Patton

Since adopting RFID technology for this purpose, Delta Air Lines and other companies have reported a drop in cases of misplaced baggage, since the technology automatically detects when a piece of luggage might be transported to the wrong aircraft, before such an error can be made (see Delta's $2 Million Gift to the Auburn RFID Lab, Delta Uses RFID for Baggage Handling and Tracking, Delta Leads the Way With RFID Baggage Tracking and Delta Improves Maintenance Efficiencies With RFID). The technology also enables airlines to share data with passengers regarding where their bags were last detected, as well as when they were received at the destination airport.

Cargo and freight-forwarding companies are also investigating, testing or deploying RFID technology to automate the data capture of packages and parcels transported by air. Numerous transportation companies operate their own airlines and handle millions of packages traveling all over the world. Other applications include the management and maintenance of safety equipment and other assets or inventory in airplanes, prior to flights. "There's a large use case for all of the items that actually go onboard the aircraft," Rogers says.

Currently, flight crews for many commercial airlines are still conducting manual preflight checks, with printed lists of items that must be checked off. Employees go through aircraft to visually ensure that all necessary and required safety equipment is on board, ranging from oxygen tanks to flotation devices and seats, before a flight can proceed. With RFID tags on those assets, that process could be accomplished within mere minutes. An individual would take a handheld reader and walk up and down an aircraft's aisle, detecting the tag ID numbers of the labels attached to each piece of equipment.

Tom Rogers

For aircraft manufacturers, as well as original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), RFID tags are providing insights into the location and status of aircraft parts. By applying high-memory UHF RFID tags to key parts, companies can capture data about every component's history, along with its last inspection or maintenance, by reading the data directly from the tag. They can also write additional information as they provide services to those parts.

The aerospace industry has been expanding as private space companies join the ranks of NASA in sending assets beyond Earth's atmosphere. As companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin increase their activity and influence, the need for a standardized approach to RFID technology use in space has come to light. Already, RFID tags are being applied to goods and assets that travel on NASA flights or are used on the International Space Station. The technology helps to ensure that goods are loaded before a rocket takes off, and it enables those on the station to find the equipment they need more quickly.

Some private space companies are sending astronauts and equipment to the Space Station as well, while NASA's gateway mission will return astronauts and their gear to the Moon and eventually to Mars. "We're going to need a data standard to get all these companies and government agencies on the same page," Rogers says. RFID will continue to be a driver for improved asset management, he adds, noting, "You can't exactly turn around and go back to get what you need." Thus, the lab intends to work with companies to create a set of data standards for tracking inventory on space missions.

The aviation and aeronautics division occupies space that was originally part of the RFID Lab, with room to conduct tests in simulated environments. Delta partnered with the lab by providing a full-scale model of an aircraft fuselage that is roughly equal to the International Space Station, as a Boeing 737 or an Airbus A320. The same testbed, Rogers says, can be reconfigured to simulate each of these environments, as well as other aircraft and orbital modules, and facilitate technology transfer between them. "We can use this testbed for conducting research," he states, "and conducting actual use cases and tests for commercial aviation operations and space companies."

The fuselage model is modifiable, so researchers can install or remove a variety of modifications as needed. For instance, the lab recently added a deck to the model craft to simulate the inside of a cargo aircraft. The organization is now in discussions with several space companies and agencies, as well as some commercial aviation companies, to conduct additional testing.

The lab will include a variety of RFID technology hardware, ranging from handheld readers to fixed antennas and readers mounted on tripods, or mounted within the aircraft testbed. Beyond RFID, the lab intends to provide testing and design work for other Internet of Things (IoT) technologies as well, such as computer vision, machine vision, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), Wi-Fi and Lidar. "We're not just solely focused on RFID anymore," Rogers states. "We've expanded beyond that."

In some cases, companies are seeking solutions that take a hybrid approach to IoT technologies. "There's tons of sensor technology [options] out there now," Rogers says,"so we're trying to take all of those and put them together and see how we can best use them." On Apr. 13, the lab plans to host a kickoff event at the Kennedy Space Center, located in Cape Canaveral, Fla. At that one-day conference, potential partners will be able to view demonstrations and discuss future planning.