Warehouse PHRAY, (Phased Array) Gun

Warehouses play a significant role in modern society because they are used to store, stock, and monitor items that will eventually arrive in grocery and retail stores, or even at homeowners’ doorsteps now! The problem we are exploring addresses warehouses need to detect and keep track of storage containers. Currently in warehouses, the need to keep track of containers is crucial because recording inventory and knowing where items are located increases overall warehouse efficiency. Instead of scanning one barcode at a time with a Barcode Reader to keep track of inventory, our mobile, handheld phased array system will scan for radiofrequency identification (RFID) tags and indicate their unique ID, as well as the direction of their location. Our proposed solution involves designing an electronically scanning phased array system to improve warehouse inventory tracking. This electronically scanning phased array system, or PHRAY gun, will be able to scan for multiple RFID tags per use. The PHRAY gun will also be able to scan said tags from a distance so that the user will not be required to physically be within inches of the container. However, a significant obstacle of designing a phased array system is optimizing each antenna characteristic needed to accomplish electronic scanning, which we intend to address through machine learning techniques in order to optimize each antenna characteristic. We expect the user to be able to press a button on the final device in order to perform automatic electronic scanning and detect 5 or more objects containing RFID tags, up to 6 feet away. Our system will output information regarding the RFID tags detected by printing an arrow on an Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) to indicate the direction of the location of any and all detected RFID tags. The overall outcome of this project involves creating a handheld phased array system that can allow the user to efficiently detect objects containing RFID tags.