Strawberry Grower Deploys RFID to Fix Temperature Troubles

For the Bionest deployment, the MicroRouters received temperature data, along with each sensor's unique ID number, every 15 minutes, then wirelessly transmitted that information to the GateWay. "In this pilot," explains Eelco de Jong, Ambient's director of marketing and business development, "we installed the small wireless mesh network in the Bionest facility in Spain, and the retailer's distribution center in Germany." At Bionest's facility, the GateWay used a wired Internet connection to send each tag's ID number and temperature data, as well the time and date of those temperature readings, to the Ambient software, known as Cool Chain Monitor, running on Bionest's back-end server.

Once the strawberries were loaded onto trucks, the sensor data could no longer be interrogated by a reader network. The SmartPoint tags have 1 megabyte of memory, however, so they continued to take temperature readings every 15 minutes, and store those results throughout the two-day journey from Spain to Germany. Upon arrival at the retailer's distribution center, Ambient MicroRouters installed at that location received each tag's temperature history and transmitted that data to a single GateWay, which utilized a GPRS connection to forward this information to the Cool Chain Monitor software.

Ambient's Eelco de Jong

Cool Chain Monitor interpreted the data, which was made available to Bionest and any other authorized user through a Web-based software application. "It's important to note that data from two separate networks in different countries was integrated into a single database," de Jong says. "This Cool Chain Monitor solution enables the monitoring of goods as they move along the supply chain in a single view."

In addition, de Jong says, the SmartPoint tags contain a shelf-life algorithm developed by Ambient and researchers at the University of Bremen. The algorithm is based on time and temperature measurements, he states, and is specific for each type of fruit and vegetable. When a SmartPoint tag arrives in Germany after the trip from Spain, it will give an indication, such as "Remaining shelf-life: 3.4 days."

According to Ambient, SmartPoint tags can be read by a MicroRouter as far as 25 meters (82 feet) away indoors and 50 meters (164 feet) outdoors. A MicroRouter can, in turn, forward the data to a GateWay up 50 to 100 meters (164 to 328 feet) away.

Bionest's staff spent two to three hours training before using the system, Cera says. "As in any trial, the first steps were difficult, and the first sendings [of tag and temperature data] were used to personalize and optimize the system to our needs," he indicates. Once the system was set up and operating properly, he says, "it worked quite well."

Because of the pilot's limited size, Bionest was unable to gauge the technology's success in reducing wasted product. "This phase was to give us an overview of the cold chain during road transport," Cera states. "We just wanted to know more about it—see what are the critical points, discuss it with the different actors and see how we can do a better job using this information given by the RFID loggers. Now, we would like to extend the RFID temp monitoring to our [other] customers, for the best-quality fruit."