Manufacturing NEWS
Text size:
T
T
T
Milan's Malpensa Airport Prepares for RFID Baggage Handling
Stefano Dolci, Malpensa's manager of baggage handling, says this part of the application differs from that used in Hong Kong, since it serves as a sort of "picking" system like those used in logistics. In Milan, workers will pick a bag when a green light tells them to unload it. ULDs assigned to a particular flight must be manually identified in the system, which will then identify the bags as they move on the carousel, using information collected via RFID. When a bag arrives in front of the correct ULD, the green light will signal workers to place it on the cart. In Hong Kong, the system only tells workers if a bag's tag has been successfully read.
This final RFID reading of the bag also supplies the baggage-handling system with information needed to perform baggage reconciliation—the process of confirming that all passengers accompany their own luggage on a plane, in an effort to increase security.
"If this system works as we expect it to, we will install it at all carousels," says Dolci, referring to carousels inside the baggage-handling room where ULDs are loaded, "and the RFID system will be connected to the actual BRS [baggage reconciliation system], so that a wireless scanner could be used to read a bar code on a load manifest that has been printed out and attached to the ULD."
During the first phase of the project, which will last roughly three months, RFID and bar-code printers will be installed at three check-in counters, RFID interrogators will be installed at the two read points and the system's software will be integrated into the airport's existing baggage-handling software. In January, when the first phase of implementation is complete, an RFID/bar-code printer-encoder will be installed at every check-in counter in Terminal 2, then in Terminal 1 as well. Suppliers for the EPC Gen 2 UHF tags and readers to be used in the deployment have not yet been selected.
"We decided to have a 'real' implementation, rather than a test," says Dolci. "We want to connect the RFID system with the PLC [the programmable logic controller that performs such operations as starting and stopping the carousels and baggage belts] so we will really use RFID for sorting the bags. This is the big difference between our installation and other baggage-handling RFID pilots in Europe."
Down the road, the Milan airport plans to extend its RFID system, enabling it to improve baggage tracking and write additional information to the tag. For instance, Dolci says, after a bag has been X-rayed and undergone some other security check, RFID antennas could write the bag's security status to the tag.
more Manufacturing articles
This final RFID reading of the bag also supplies the baggage-handling system with information needed to perform baggage reconciliation—the process of confirming that all passengers accompany their own luggage on a plane, in an effort to increase security.
|
| Stefano Dolci |
During the first phase of the project, which will last roughly three months, RFID and bar-code printers will be installed at three check-in counters, RFID interrogators will be installed at the two read points and the system's software will be integrated into the airport's existing baggage-handling software. In January, when the first phase of implementation is complete, an RFID/bar-code printer-encoder will be installed at every check-in counter in Terminal 2, then in Terminal 1 as well. Suppliers for the EPC Gen 2 UHF tags and readers to be used in the deployment have not yet been selected.
"We decided to have a 'real' implementation, rather than a test," says Dolci. "We want to connect the RFID system with the PLC [the programmable logic controller that performs such operations as starting and stopping the carousels and baggage belts] so we will really use RFID for sorting the bags. This is the big difference between our installation and other baggage-handling RFID pilots in Europe."
Down the road, the Milan airport plans to extend its RFID system, enabling it to improve baggage tracking and write additional information to the tag. For instance, Dolci says, after a bag has been X-rayed and undergone some other security check, RFID antennas could write the bag's security status to the tag.
