Study of the Readability of Passive UHF RFID Tags Placed Inside a Cargo Van by a Reader Located Outside

The aim of this paper is to study the feasibility of getting information from a cargo van returning back on its storage area by using a low cost communication system. According to the low speed of the vehicle and to the involved short distances, a UHF RFID solution is considered. An experimental study shows that passive tags may be read successfully but not in the entire space of the van. A semi-empirical numerical method based on the Geometrical Optics is derived in order to build a fast computer aided-positioning tool that may help to optimize the location of the tags. The same software tool is used for carrying out a parametric study that informs on the best antenna system to use. It is find out that a solution using passive tags and two antennas limits the theoretical results to 90% successful reading percentage whereas using semi-passive tags ensures a 100% one in the whole space of the vehicle