Application of contactless IC card in warehouse management

This paper introduces the design scheme, system composition, main functions and implementation of a contactless IC card warehouse management system, and discusses the system security.

introduction

At present, warehouse management is mainly based on manual work and computer semi-automatic management. Its disadvantages are obvious, that is, it requires a lot of manpower to standardize the placement of items, regular inventory and in and out registration, which makes warehouse management very cumbersome and wastes a lot of time. Therefore, it is ideal to apply contactless IC cards to warehouse management, which is also a new application field of contactless IC cards.

1. Introduction to contactless IC card

Contactless IC card, also known as Radio Frequency Identification Card, is a new technology that has developed rapidly in recent years. It has the characteristics of non-contact two-way communication, fast operation, reliable reading and writing, and high security. As shown in Figure 1, the hardware structure of the contactless IC card consists of two parts: antenna and dedicated chip. The antenna is a coil with only a few windings, which is very suitable for packaging into ISO7816 standard cards; the dedicated chip consists of a high-speed radio frequency interface, an access unit and an E2PROM. The radio frequency interface part receives signals with its own resonant circuit and generates power and working clock from it. The interface also demodulates the data transmitted from the read-write device to the contactless IC card and the data transmitted from the contactless IC card to the read-write device. The control unit is used for password verification, programming mode checking, data encryption and decryption, etc., and controls the read and write operations of the E?2PROM. In order to prevent data interference between cards, the contactless IC card also has an anti-collision closure mechanism. When multiple cards enter the operating range of the reader, the anti-collision closed circuit first selects one card as the pre-processing object, while the other cards are in idle mode waiting to be selected next time, so that multiple cards can be processed continuously [2].

2. Warehouse management system based on contactless IC card

The purpose of the contactless IC card warehouse management system design is to realize the automation of the process of goods in and out control, goods storage location and quantity statistics, and information query, so as to facilitate managers to count, query and master the flow of materials. In order to achieve the requirements of convenience, speed, safety and efficiency, the system design is as follows.

2.1 System composition

The hardware of the contactless IC card warehouse management system includes: host, printer, in-and-out reader/writer, location reader/writer, mobile reader/writer, RS485 interface card, electric control door, alarm detection device, etc. The host is installed with management software, which is connected to the in-and-out reader/writer and all the location reader/writers through the RS485 interface card and controls them, such as setting permissions, reading records and statistical queries, etc. The location reader/writer records the placement of items, the in-and-out reader/writer controls the electric control door, collects the in-and-out records of items, etc. The system structure is shown in Figure 2. This system uses contactless IC cards as the identification of items and stores their model, production date, quantity and other information.

This system management software is developed in Windows 98 environment using VB 6.0, and mainly includes five modules: system settings, inventory management, outbound management, material management and database management.

System settings include password modification, warehouse area, reader address, serial port and alarm rules, etc.

Modules for warehouse entry and exit management, reading and writing IC cards, adding and deleting records, generating reports, etc.

Material management includes functions such as material location, inventory, statistics and report generation;

Database management can browse, query, sort and other operations on the database. It can only modify or edit some information, such as the degree of damage, remarks, etc., and has no right to add or delete any records.

2.2 Main functions of the system and its implementation

(1) Material positioning

When an item enters or leaves a certain area in the warehouse, it needs to pass through the location reader in that area. The reader records the item, and the logic circuit determines the direction of the item entering or leaving, as shown in Figure 3. The host receives the record and the entry and exit mark and modifies the database. If the item enters a certain area, the record is added to the area in the database; otherwise, the record is deleted. This realizes the one-to-one correspondence between the actual location of the warehouse materials and the information in the host database, which greatly facilitates the management personnel to query, check, and find materials.