By Duncan McFarlane

Feb. 1, 2006—The past three years have seen huge developments in RFID within the aerospace sector. The rate at which they are occurring has been triggered by activities in the consumer product goods sector, where Wal-Mart, Metro, Tesco and other retailers now require RFID compliance from their supply chain partners. But aerospace applications of RFID in no way directly replicate those in the CPG sector.

In September, the Auto-ID Labs launched the Aerospace ID Technologies Programme to reduce the barriers to widespread and systematic adoption of ID technologies. It will run for 18 months and aims to demonstrate that research can address the industry's key concerns.


A particular focus of the program is to examine some of the fundamental differences in the way RFID needs to be considered for the aerospace industry compared with its development in the CPG supply chain. Unlike most consumer goods, a typical aerospace component has up to 50 years of life, may be constructed from hundreds or thousands of subcomponents, can have a value of up to $1 million and is subject to stringent monitoring throughout its life.

In response to these needs, the Aero ID program is examining five interrelated research themes that reflect these differences:

• Life-Cycle ID Management: Given that aerospace components have an extremely long life cycle, and that data entries are held on a variety of databases and with differing locator IDs, we'll be developing a long-term model for secure life-cycle data management.
• Tag and Database Synchronization: Boeing's 2005 request for a 64 Kb passive RFID tag will require a strategy for synchronizing data that will be maintained in duplicate on networked databases and on the tag.
• Resilient Tags: The long life cycle, coupled with many different environments, requires a robust, resilient tag, a long-term model for data management and security, and potentially the need for multiple ID solutions for a single component.
• ID-Sensor Fusion: Comprehensive management of an aerospace component requires that the selected ID solutions be combined with many other sensing devices in an effective manner.
• RFID-Enhanced Track and Trace: The accurate and timely tracking of a component is critical in commercial and military aerospace applications. Further, the complexity of many components means they contain many subcomponents and subassemblies, each with its own ID and replacement, repair and upgrade processes. A model for specifying track-and-trace requirements appropriately and cost-effectively will be developed and trialed.

The Aerospace ID Technologies Programme will reduce the barriers to widespread and systematic adoption of ID technologies.

The program brings together many of the leaders in the aerospace industry, including aircraft manufacturers Airbus, Boeing and Embraer; defense company BAE Systems; solutions providers AEROid, Aviall, BT Auto-ID Services, T-Systems and VI-Agents; and key standards bodies Air Transport Association, EPCglobal and SITA SC. Together, we'll develop a deployment process as successful as the one currently under way in the retail sector but geared toward the very different needs of the aerospace industry.

Duncan McFarlane is director of the Auto-ID Lab at Cambridge and research director of the Aerospace ID Technologies Programme.