A LOW COST RFID TRACKING AND TIMING SYSTEM

FOR BIKE RACES

A Thesis

Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for

the Degree Master of Science in the

Graduate School of The Ohio State University

By

Wei-Feng Tsai, B.S.

Graduate Program in Electrical & Computer Engineering

*****

The Ohio State University

2011

Masters Examination Committee:

Robert J. Burkholder, Adviser

Fernando L. Teixeira
 Copyright by

Wei-Feng Tsai

2011
 ABSTRACT

A new RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) bike race tracking system is de-

signed, built and tested providing reduced system complexity and enhanced rider

tracking capability. This system is build upon two commodity passive RFID com-

ponents, a UHF reader and associated UHF item-level tags, plus novel RFID reader

antennas developed at The Ohio State University. The uniform energy distribution

property built into the novel RFID antennas enables easy-to-design coverage and su-

perior fading control with a minimum number of antennas. This thesis shows how

these three components are optimally deployed to create a unique and cost effective

bike race tracking system.

ii
This is dedicated to my family and who have inspired me.

iii
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First, I give thanks to my Heavenly Father, who called me from an inferior school

in my home country to the top school in electromagnetics in the US. Without His

constant patient, love and teaching even before I knew him, I would never be able to

face the dark clouds to find the golden lining.

Second, I give thanks to my parents, Te-Ching Tsai and Shu-Fen Tseng, who

have always been supportive and understanding, even when my research has greatly

reduced the yearly visiting to them in my home country. Any success that I have

today could not have been possible without them. I am also thankful for my wife

Chiu-Wen Lin, who not only has tolerated long work nights but has also managed to

prevent me from starvation and bad health. Thanks for so many nights taking care

of our little son Daniel to enable more time and energy for my research.

My adviser, Professor Robert J. Burkholder, deserves thanks not only for his

wisdom and guidance but also for his unending patience with me. He teaches me

a lot in EM theory. Through him, I have not only learned engineering, but I have

become a better writer and overall thinker. He has strengthened my understanding

of how to research effectively and continues to serve as an important role-model for

me. Moreover, his humble attitude also teaches me much in terms of dealing with

lifes problems. Thank God for letting me have such a great advisor.

iv
 I owe lots of thank to Professor Walter D. Burnside for not only teaching me

electromagnetic measurement skills but also showing me how theory and measurement

converge together. His teachings have attenuated my ignorance and improved my

ability on how to think through an EM problem. Not only that, he and his wifes

open warmth set me free from the blind side of my heart and introduced me to the

way God has planned for me. Their introducing me to God is so important to me.

They have shared with me how to receive love, wisdom and many things beyond words

from God. As an Asian, I truly feel what is called love from God. I cannot thank

them for more. Thank God for putting me among them and realizing the importance

of love.

I must thank research fellow Jiun-San Shen and Chun-Yen Chen in the Institute

of Earth Science in Academia Sinica for training me in all types of experimental

skills. Their patience was a big turning point for me in terms of loving theortical

and experimental Electromagnetics. Many thanks to Jiun-San Shen. Without his

patience, love and encouragement, I would not be in the US and realizing that I have

been receiving love from God.

Finally, I thank Fernando L. Teixeira for agreeing to take the time to be a member

of my thesis committee. As he is an expert in electromagnetics, I am eager to hear

his responses to my work.

v
 VITA

August 20, 1978 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Born - Keelung, Taiwan

June 2002 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B.S., Elec. & Comp. Engineering

October,2007 - present . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Graduate Research Associate,

ElecctroScience Lab,
Ohio State Univ - Columbus,OH.

FIELDS OF STUDY

Major Field: Electrical & Computer Engineering

vi
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ii

Dedication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii

Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iv

Vita . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi

List of Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x

List of Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi

Chapters:

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.1 Motivation and Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.2 Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.3 Technical Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3.1 Thesis Outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

2. What Is RFID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.2 History of RFID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.3 Operating Frequency of RFID System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.4 Two Commodity Passive UHF RFID Components . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.4.1 UHF RFID Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.4.2 Passive UHF RFID Tag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.4.2.1 Rectifier Circuit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.4.2.2 Application Circuit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

vii
 2.4.2.3 Modulator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.5 Novel Reader Antenna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.5.1 A Missing Piece in Peoples Mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.5.2 Uniform Energy Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.5.3 Zone Coverage of NeWave Antenna Deployment . . . . . . . 19

3. What is the Bike Application and Proposed System Solution . . . . . . . 21

3.1 What Is A Bike Race . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

3.2 Most Popular Bike Race Type in the US: Criterium Racing . . . . 22
3.3 Race Official Problems Associated with Criterium Racing . . . . . 26
3.4 Needed properties of race system solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

4. Hardware Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

4.1 Proposed Core technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

4.2 Minimal Race Impact System Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
4.3 Truss Antenna Deployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.4 Helmet Deployed Tag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4.5 Truss Zone Coverage Using Novel RFID Antenna Deployment . . . 36
4.5.1 Defining the Truss RFID Zone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
4.5.2 Proposed Novel RFID Antenna Deployment . . . . . . . . . 39
4.5.3 Proper Illumination of the Truss RFID Zone . . . . . . . . . 41
4.6 Real Measurement on the Proposed Novel RFID Antenna Deployment 44
4.6.1 Measurement Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.6.2 Measurement Result in Y polarization Setup . . . . . . . . . 47
4.6.3 Measurement Result in Z polarization Setup . . . . . . . . . 48
4.6.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

5. Software Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

5.1 Mach1 API and Impinj Reader Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

5.2 Raw Data Collection Subroutine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
5.2.1 Command Reader to Collect Tag Data . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
5.2.1.1 RFID Operation in Autoset Mode . . . . . . . . . . 57
5.2.1.2 Sending Tag Data to PC Buffer . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
5.2.2 Raw Data Preparation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
5.3 Raw Data Processing Subroutine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
5.3.1 Big Table Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
5.3.2 Big Table Modification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
5.3.2.1 Remove Extra Dots Before Race Start and After Race
End . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

viii
 5.3.2.2 Filling Missing Laps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

6. Real Race Demonstration Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

6.1 2009 Ture De Grandview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

6.1.1 System Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
6.1.2 Race Result . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
6.2 The 2009 Cyclocross Derby Cup in Louisville, Ky . . . . . . . . . . 74
6.2.1 System Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
6.2.2 Race Result . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
6.2.2.1 Masters Women Cat 1/2/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
6.2.2.2 Junior Girls 10/14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
6.2.2.3 Junior Boys 15/16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
6.2.2.4 Junior Boy 10/14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
6.2.2.5 Category 3/4 Women . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

7. Summary and Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

ix
 LIST OF TABLES

Table Page

2.1 Various RFID Frequency Bands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

3.1 Bicycle racing categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

4.1 Y-Pol read rate across the truss width . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

4.2 Z-Pol read rate across the truss width . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

x
 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Page

2.1 RFID system layout including RFID reader, reader antenna and tag. 8

2.2 Typical Bistatic RFID UHF Reader System Schematic Layout. . . . . 12

2.3 Typical Monostatic RFID UHF Reader System Schematic Layout. . . 13

2.4 Basic Components of a UHF RFID Tag. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

2.5 Rectifier Circuit Schematic and Associated Waveforms. . . . . . . . . 15

2.6 Modulator Changes the Input Impedance of the Antenna to Encode

Information via Antenna Mode Scattering. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

2.7 Uniform Energy Distribution Coverage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

2.8 Combination of NeWave Antenna in Overcoming Interference Nulls. . 20

3.1 Bike Race Course . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

3.2 2010 Tour de France Course. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

3.3 The Mass Start at a Criterium race. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

3.4 A Racers Number May Be Obscured If He Falls in Mud. . . . . . . . 27

4.1 Race finish line. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

4.2 Helmet with passive UHF RFID tag attached. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

4.3 Finish line truss and the desired truss RFID coverage zone. . . . . . . 38

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4.4 Antenna deployment over truss RFID zone and polarization coverage. 40

4.5 Simulated RF illumination of truss RFID zone with one and two an-
tennas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

4.6 Coverage regions of two sets of antennas and their combined coverage
region. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

4.7 Simulated RF illumination of truss RFID zone with three and four
antennas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

4.8 Dual-polarized tag panel for probing RFID coverage zone. . . . . . . 45

4.9 Measurement Setup on the Proposed Novel RFID Antenna Deployment. 46

4.10 Panel Orientation in Y Polarization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

4.11 20 Passes Across the Width of the Truss for Y Polarization Measurement. 48

4.12 Panel Orientation in Z Polarization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

4.13 5 Passes Across the Width of the Truss for Z Polarization Measurement. 50

5.1 Subroutines Used to Collect, Process, and Display RFID Tag Data. . 52

5.2 Impinj Reader States. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

5.3 Speedway Reader and Indicator LEDs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

5.4 Top level Block Diagram of Raw Data Collection Subroutine. . . . . . 55

5.5 First Block in Top level Block Diagram of Raw Data Collection Sub-
routine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

5.6 Second Block in Top level Block Diagram of Raw Data Collection Sub-
routine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

5.7 Raw Data File Example. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

5.8 Block Diagram of Raw Data Processing Subroutine. . . . . . . . . . . 62

xii
5.9 Big Table Concept. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

5.10 Big Table Construction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

5.11 Big Table Before Modification. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

5.12 Big Table After Modification. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

6.1 2009 Tour de Grandview Race Course. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

6.2 Start/Finish line in 2009 Tour de Grandview Race. . . . . . . . . . . 70

6.3 RFID System Continually Recording Data During Complete Race. . . 70

6.4 Racers Get Ready for Start. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

6.5 During the Race. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

6.6 Exciting Finish to Race. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

6.7 Overall Race Results. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

6.8 Race Results from Race Officials and RFID System. . . . . . . . . . . 73

6.9 Lap Time of the Race Winner and the Finished 2nd. . . . . . . . . . 74

6.10 A Sketch of the Race Course in Derby City Cup. . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

6.11 Riding Sections of Off-Road Track. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

6.12 Running Sections of Off-Road Track. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

6.13 Two RFID systems Placed along the Derby City Cup Route. . . . . . 78

6.14 First Day Derby City Cup Schedule. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

6.15 Big Table of Race 2 During the Derby City Cup. . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

6.16 Race result of Masters Women Cat 1/2/3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

xiii
6.17 Race result of Junior Girls10/14. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

6.18 Race result of Junior Boys 15/16. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

6.19 Race result of Junior Boys 10/14. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

6.20 Race Result of Category 3/4 Women. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

xiv
 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Motivation and Challenges

Radio frequency identification (RFID) applications have exploded in recent years

due to the shrinking cost of RFID tags and improved range of RFID readers. In this

thesis, a passive UHF RFID system is developed and tested for bike racing events

in a very simple and low cost manner. RFID technology has been verified as being

capable of tracking moving goods; however, the biggest challenge is reducing the

complexity for such a system which in turn reduces the system cost. This thesis

focuses on building such a system for keeping track of contestants during bicycle

races. This requires being able to read the RFID tags affixed to the cyclists as they

pass through certain points on the racing route. The system should be able to keep

track of laps and lap times of a large number of fast-moving cyclists reliably and

without intruding on the race. And, of course, the system must be affordable and

easy for the race promoter to set up and operate.

1.2 Background

An RFID system involves a reader and tags. Tags are attached to objects for

the purpose of identification and tracking using radio waves going back and forth

1
between the reader and tags. Each tag has a unique ID number, much like a barcode,

except that it can be read at greater ranges and a direct line-of-sight is not necessary.

There are generally two types of RFID tags: active and passive, originating from the

need for varying communication range between reader and tag. An active tag has

its own power source to run its microchip circuitry, whereas a passive tag does not.

Instead, a passive tag converts the incoming RF wave energy from the reader as its

power source. Generally speaking, active tags have longer communication range but

are more expensive and bulky than passive tags. On the other hand, passive tags are

very cheap and light weight but at the sacrifice of the communication range.

In terms of tracking, there are lots of ideas about tracking various objects using

RFID (see for example [6, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16]) and furthermore combining with

a video system to yield more accurate result in time [7, 10]. Essentially, they all

follow the same basic principle: objects to be tracked are tagged with RFID tags and

readers are used to capture the tag via an RF signal. Following this basic principle,

commercial products have been developed for race tracking [1, 2, 3, 9]. Currently

commercially available tracking/timing systems in running and cycling sports inte-

grate the reader antennas into the track or inside a mat placed on the ground. As

athletes pass over the mat or track, the reader antenna detects the tag on the athletes

and records the timing for the athletes right away. From an RF point of view, one

can observe that since the reader antenna is basically on the ground, the path loss

from the reader antenna to the tag on the athletes is high due to moisture in the

ground, human flesh, water on the ground, etc. To counteract this pass loss, the first

method is that the tags deployed on the athletets have to be very close to ground. For

example [1, 2] deploy UHF passive RFID tags right on the feet of the athletets and

2
[3] deploys HF tags on the ankles of the athletes. Or an independent power supply

on the tag may be utilized. For example, [3] uses semi-passive UHF tags and [9] uses

active tags.

However, from the point of view of race officials, promoters and athletes, placing

the reader antenna on the ground is not preferred! There are two reasons for this.

First, the mat introduces a significant impact on the race. From the athletes point

of view, the mat is acting like an obstacle during the race which makes them tend to

reduce their speed when running over the map for safety reasons or for being sure to

be captured by the system. From the race officials point of view, the mat is easily

shifted away from its normal position after athletes pass by at high speed. Race

officials have to pull the mat back to its normal position when the track is clear. This

gives rise to several concerns. Among them, the two biggest issues are safety for the

athletes and the fairness for timing the athletes when the mat is shifted away.

Second, given the abovementioned problems with embedding the reader antenna

within the track or in a mat, and the tag is required to be deployed some distance

from ground, atcive/semi-passive tags may be required to counteract the read range

issue. These tags are much more expensive than passive tags, so the system cost

goes up and the cost is shifted to the officials, promoters and athletes. To sum up,

officials,athletes, promoters and spectators want an unobtrusive system such that

they can enjoy the race safely and with low cost. To reach this goal, such a system

has to meet the following three basic requirements: 1) Accurately track each and

every racer in a sufficiently fast manner, 2) Least impact on the race, 3) Low cost.

3
1.3 Technical Approach

In order to achieve the low cost requirement, UHF passive RFID tags and reader

system are considered due to the well developed commercial UHF readers available

in recent years as well as a great cost reduction in UHF passive tags. Next, to bring

the least impact on the race, the reader antennas cannot be placed on the ground.

Instead, they are placed over the track above of the athletes. This approach also

gives the minimal path loss between the tags and reader antennas. Since theres no

hindrance on the race way, athletes now can compete in the race with their full speed.

Given thats the case, the system now has to track those full speed athletes passing

under the reader antennas. This is achieved in two ways: reader antenna deployment

and tag deployment. First, reader antennas are deployed in an optimized way to create

a coverage zone. Within every point in this zone, tags in all possible orientations

can be properly excited by the electromagnetic energy illuminated from the reader

antennas without fading. Next, the tags are properly deployed on the athletes to

ensure they will be excited within the coverage zone.

1.3.1 Thesis Outline

The objective of this thesis is to introduce how to build a simple and low cost

RFID bike race tracking system. With this goal in mind, a systematic approach is

presented in this thesis.

Chapter 2 first quickly describes RFID technology from its origin all the way till

now. The existing passive UHF RFID system is selected as our candidate system,

because of its well-developed UHF reader and low price passive UHF tags. After

more in-depth understanding on UHF reader and tags, a novel reader antenna is

4
introduced with its superior coverage capability and simplicity in solving fading in

real-world environments.

Chapter 3 presents various features of a bike race as well as the associated problems

that race officials face during an actual race. These problems then lead to the desired

properties of the proposed tracking system: (1) accurately track each and every racer

in a sufficiently fast manner; (2) have the least impact on the race; (3) always keeping

in mind that the overall cost must be minimized.

Chapter 4 explores the hardware implementation of the requested system archi-

tecture. The combination of a truss-mounted antenna and helmet tag deployment

provides the least impact on the race and racers as well as least insertion loss in the

EM propagation between these two antennas. With this in mind, an optimal antenna

placement with four reader antennas illuminating the desired truss zone without fad-

ing is proposed through a simplified RF simulation model. A real-world measurement

is then conducted to prove that the proposed placement will catch all riders passing

through the designed truss zone.

Chapter 5 proposes the software implementation going with the hardware imple-

mentation in previous chapter. It starts from the working status of the reader and

the associated API to command the reader to collect tag data. Once data is collected,

a post data processing routine is used to convert the raw data from the reader into

racer data useful for race officials.

Chapter 6 presents the real bike race demonstration results from the 2009 Tour

de Grandview Bike Race in Grandview, Ohio and the 2009 Cyclocross Derby Cup

in Louisville, KY. In the 2009 Tour de Grandview Bike Race, the system was used

to track professional category riders with top racing speed approaching 40 miles per

5
hour. The RFID results agree with official results and thus proves the system is able

to track each and every racer even at their full speed. In the 2009 Cyclocross Derby

Cup in Louisville, KY, the system demonstrated the ability to track each and every

racer even though each race contained bikers from multiple categories traversing the

same course.

Chapter 7 gives a summary of the system along with conclusions.

6
 CHAPTER 2

WHAT IS RFID

2.1 Introduction

RFID is one of the most promising and highly anticipated technologies in recent

years. It is a contraction for Radio-Frequency IDentification which refers to a sys-

tem making use of electromagnetic waves to identify tagged objects automatically as

shown in Figure 2.1.

In this pictorial view of a RFID system[7], there are 3 components: reader (also

called transceiver or interrogator), tag (also called transponder) and a computer sys-

tem. The tag is a device used to identify the attached object and can be powered

by internal power source (called an active tag) or by incoming electromagnetic wave

(called a passive tag). The reader is a device that recognizes the tag as well as the in-

formation stored in the tag via the reader antenna. People nowadays widely use patch

antenna as the reader antenna in a RFID system. Computer system is used to control

the reader and digest the information form the reader to the outside world. Roughly

speaking, an RFID system using active/passive tags is called an active/passive RFID

system.

7
 Figure 2.1: RFID system layout including RFID reader, reader antenna and tag.

2.2 History of RFID

The root of RFID technology can be traced back to the birth of radar in the

early 20th century[5, 7, 8]. In WWII, Germans, Japanese, Americans and British

were all using radar to detect the airplanes beyond the visible range at their base.

However, there was no way to tell whether the plane detected by radar was friendly

or unfriendly? The attack on Pearl Harbor is a very good example of this limitation.

The German Air Force first thought of a crude way to solve this problem by rolling

the airplane. The British noticed that German planes would suddenly for no reason

at all roll their planes when they return to their base. The British learned that the

rolling is changing the RCS which turns out to cause changes in the backscattered

signal return to the radar. German pilots were using this crude method to help

identify their plane to their radar. This is essentially the first passive RFID system

which is built upon radar.

8
 It did not take long for people to realize the fundamental restriction of rolling the

airplane was that it contained very little information. Especially when rolling planes

were all over the sky, the ground radar would have a hard time to tell a friend from a

foe. The British later solved this problem by placing a transponder on the airplane.

When the transponder receives the signal from the ground radar, it sends a special

coded signal back to the radar that identifies it as being friendly. This system is built

upon radar and its called IFF (Identify Friend or Foe).

In 1948, Harry Stockman in a landmark paper stated that Evidently, considerable

research and development work has to be done before the remaining basic problems in

reflected-power communication are solved, and before the field of useful applications

is explored. Half a century passed after Harry Stockmans work. With lots of research

work and the growth of IC technology, RFID is now a rapidly growing part of our

life. Current RFID use has spread to lots of varied fields: medical, animal tracking,

warehouse inventory, theft preventing, automating toll collecting, etc.

2.3 Operating Frequency of RFID System

One way to classify various RFID systems is in terms of the operating frequency

of the reader. In other words, the frequency and radiated power levels of the EM

wave used to communicate between the reader and tag dictates the read range of a

RFID system. Table 2.1 summarizes the operating principle associated with different

frequencies and corresponding typical applications[7].

One of the main benefits of using the lower frequency systems is that they tend to

work better when dealing with unfriendly RF materials. The operating principle is

by electric or magnetic field coupling. One example of using LF is contactless smart

9
 Frequency 30-300KHz 3-30MHz 300-3GHz > 3G (Mi-
(LF) (HF) (UHF) crowave)
Read Range 50cm 3m 9m >10m
(Passive Tag)
Application Animal Inen- EAS System Inventory Automobile
tification Control Identification
Coupling Operating Principle Radiating

Table 2.1: Various RFID Frequency Bands

card system with payment functions. This kind of system is typically used for strict

security applications that do not require a long read range. However, these kinds of

closed coupling systems have less and less importance on the marketplace.

One example of an HF system is the widespread EAS (electronic article surveil-

lance) system, which is designed to perform anti-theft in retail stores. This kind of

system is still very active in the marketplace.

To be able to work with water, LF/HF systems sacrifice their read range. However,

read range is fascinating to people in terms of reducing human error which in turn

brings a significant cost saving. One typical example is inventory control. With a

system defined read zone based on its read range, one can read a whole pallet of

tagged goods in real time , which results in a huge time and personal cost savings.

Also, the sufficient read range brings less impact on system integration into existing

warehouse applications.

The recent cost reduction in passive UHF tags has brought an increase in the

use of passive UHF frequencies. On June 2003, Wal-Mart announced its plan to

implement passive UHF RFID technology to track pallets and cases. The same year

10
in November, Wal-Mart delivered a message to its top 100 supplier to address its

seriousness to use a passive UHF RFID system. As a result, the Wal-Mart suppliers

were put under a huge pressure to make RFID inventory tracking a reality in their

own operations. With this big push, UHF passive RFID system solutions were forced

into the marketplace. Because of complexity of these systems, this first big push was

not as successful as Wal-Mart would have liked. The main problem is that tags were

read in undesired regions but failed to be read in the desired region.

The complexity of the system can be divided into two folds: signal processing and

EM part. Signal processing part involves tag and reader optimization in the sense to

be able extract and process a very weak coded signal between tag and reader from

the noise in real-world environment. The EM part involves the understanding of EM

wave propagation to excite the tag properly. Lots of work in signal processing part

has been done these years and there are now well-developed commodity components

in the marketplace. However, the EM part is still a missing piece nowadays due to

lack of a suitable reader antenna to create desired zone coverage to excite tags only

within the desired zone with no fading.

In this thesis, a passive RFID system integrating signal processing and EM part is

used to develop a unique bike race tracking system. In this solution, the read zone is

created by the novel reader antenna such that well-developed commodity components,

reader and tag will perform the best. Next lets take a deeper look at the two well-

developed commodity components in a passive UHF RFID system V standardized

readers and tags.

11
 Figure 2.2: Typical Bistatic RFID UHF Reader System Schematic Layout.

2.4 Two Commodity Passive UHF RFID Components

2.4.1 UHF RFID Reader

The reader in a passive UHF RFID system is basically a radar system. The reader

uses the antenna to send coded information in a modulated waveform. A receiver

circuit on the tag is able to detect this modulated field, decode the information, and

use its own antenna to send a (backscatter) response to the reader. Currently there

are two architectures for the reader: monostatic and bistatic[4]. The functional block

diagram of a bistatic reader is shown in Figure 2.2.

The RF source generates the RF signal. The signal is then amplified and trans-

mitted to the tag via the TX antenna. As soon as this backscattered signal from

12
 Figure 2.3: Typical Monostatic RFID UHF Reader System Schematic Layout.

the tag is received by the RX antenna, it is amplified right away via the low noise

amplifier (LNA) and then the message is decoded.

According to the Reciprocity Theorem, the reader antenna can be used as the TX

and RX antenna at the same time. With a circulator, the bistatic architecture can

be modified into a monostatic architecture as shown in Figure 2.3.

To sum up, a monostatic reader uses the one antenna for both transmit and receive

functions, while a bistatic reader uses a separate antenna for transmit and receive.

2.4.2 Passive UHF RFID Tag

A passive UHF RFID tag is composed of 4 parts[4]: tag antenna, rectifier circuit,

modulator and application circuit which is shown in Figure 2.4. The rectifier circuit,

13
 Figure 2.4: Basic Components of a UHF RFID Tag.

modulator and application circuits are fabricated using CMOS technology all built

into a single chip. This chip is powered by the rectifier circuit. When receiving

a modulated signal from the reader, the tag demodulates and decodes the signal

by using the application circuit. The application circuit also further serves the tag

to perform some operations such as data processing and storage, and controls the

modulator for sending coded information back to the reader via the antenna.

2.4.2.1 Rectifier Circuit

The rectifier circuit is used to provide DC bias for all the CMOS transistors in the

chip by making use of the energy carried by the electromagnetic wave coming from

the reader and converted into DC voltage. The fundamental idea to convert an RF

signal to DC is by combining a clamping circuit and an envelope detector[4] as shown

in Figure 2.5.

For the sake of discussion, lets assume that all the diodes and capacitors are ideal

in the circuit of Figure 2.5. The first diode D1 is used to clamp the induced voltage

Vi generated by the RF signal impinging upon the tag antenna into a positive level.

14
Figure 2.5: Rectifier Circuit Schematic and Associated Waveforms.

15
The way it works is the following: when Vi is positive, diode D1 is reverse biased

and thus open which makes Vint follows Vi; when Vi is nagative, diode D1 is forward

biased and thus shorts out Vint to ground. Next, Vint is passed through the enveloper

detector which in turn outputs a DC voltage for biasing the chip. Various techniques

build upon this basic idea are used in the IC circuit technology to increase the DC

voltage level to provide sufficient biasing voltage.

2.4.2.2 Application Circuit

Recall the purpose of a tag is to serve as identification, which requires some

mechanism for data processing, storage, and communication between the reader and

tag. The mechanism is provided in the application circuit. Here are some operation

capabilities provided in a typical application circuit[7].

i) Read: All tags must be able to deliver the information stored in its memory

back to the reader.

ii) Kill: Some tags can be set such that it will not respond to a reader after

commanded by the reader. Usually a password is required to perform this operation

for a given tag.

iii) Write: Some tags can store information via commands from the reader.

iv) Anti-collision: In the presence of a large number of tags, a reader typically

has a hard time to handle the response from all the tags at once. Anti-collision is

designed to tell tags to wait for their turn.

v) Encryption: Some tags are designed to perform encrypted communication. In

other words, it only responds to the reader when the correct password is sent.

16
Figure 2.6: Modulator Changes the Input Impedance of the Antenna to Encode
Information via Antenna Mode Scattering.

2.4.2.3 Modulator

Consider now that the passive tag would like to send a coded RF signal back to the

reader. It first creates a carrier signal Aej by the IF oscillator within the application

circuit. The carrier then needs be encoded with information via the modulator. What

the modulator does is vary the input impedance of the chip to change the reflection

coefficient, G, associated with the antenna as shown in Figure 2.6. This controls what

is known as the antenna mode scattering.

Note that there are only two modulation types that are possible: amplitude shift

keying (ASK) and phase shift keying (PSK), since the coded signal scattered by the

tag antenna is (1 + )Aej , and (1 + ) can only change either the phase or amplitude

of Aej .

17
2.5 Novel Reader Antenna

2.5.1 A Missing Piece in Peoples Mind

After years of polishing up, the reader and the tag chip have been optimized in

extracting and processing the coded signal from the noise. People use the optimized

reader and chip with the combination of conventional patch antenna as a reader

antenna to form a RFID system. Such a system typically leads to the dilemma of

exciting tags in undesired regions and failing to excite tags in the desired region. In

fighting against this dilemma, soon people increase not only the cost but also the

complexity of the whole system. All those above are indicating the reader antenna is

a missing piece in the pictorial view of a RFID system in peoples mind nowadays.

2.5.2 Uniform Energy Distribution

The patch is a far field antenna; thus, it provides very limited coverage in the near

field region needed for RFID application. Therefore one needs an antenna distributes

the energy at near field for zone coverage. A novel reader antenna called the NeWave

antenna has been developed at The Ohio State University to meet the goal. The

idea is to elongate the patch antenna in a way such that the input power going into

the antenna now is uniformly radiated along the extended length of the antenna. As

shown in Figure 2.7, with the radiated EM energy uniformly distributed along the

antenna, the NeWave antenna creates a better converge for the near field region. This

greatly reduces the cost and complexity in laying out a system.

18
 Figure 2.7: Uniform Energy Distribution Coverage.

2.5.3 Zone Coverage of NeWave Antenna Deployment

Now lets see about how to use the NeWave Antenna in covering a 2D rectangular

region in a real environment. Figure 2.8(a) shows a simplified interference pattern of

a single NeWave Antenna in a 2D rectangular region in a real environment. Observe

the interference nulls, or fading, created by multipath in a real environment. This

type of fading can only be overcome by either changing the environment (for example

moving the tag to the peak instead of nulls), or by having more than one antenna

to fill in the interference nulls as shown in Figure 2.8(b). A second offset NeWave

Antenna compliments the pattern of the first antenna. At this point, one can easily see

the advantage of the NeWave Antenna: it provides easy to control coverage without

fading using a minimal number of antennas. This in turn provides a great reduction

in system complexity and cost. This antenna configuration then is used to cover a

19
 Figure 2.8: Combination of NeWave Antenna in Overcoming Interference Nulls.

so called truss zone in the bike race route to track each and every racer as they pass

through the truss zone.

20
 CHAPTER 3

WHAT IS THE BIKE APPLICATION AND PROPOSED

SYSTEM SOLUTION

3.1 What Is A Bike Race

According to the USA Cycling (USAC) rule book, a bike race is defined as a

competition among persons using bicycles where awards are given on the basis of

relative performance. Race distances could be a few kilometers to 200 kilometers.

The winner is defined to be the first racer to cross the finish line after completely

riding the race distance. The race course can be from place to place (Figure 3-1a),

several laps of a circuit (Figure 3-1b), out and back (Figure 3-1c), or a combination

of these. The race course can be held on roads, country, forest paths, open terrain or

combination of these.

The most famous bike race in the world is The Tour de France, which is held an-

nually. The course of The Tour de France changes every year covering approximately

3,500 kilometers throughout France and bordering countries and finishing tradition-

ally in Paris. Figure 3-2 shows the course of The Tour de France in 2010. It covers

a total distance of 3,600 kilometers breaking up into 20 day-long segments (called

stages) plus 2 rest days. In 2009, the winner of each daily stage won e8,000 and the

21
 Figure 3.1: Bike Race Course

overall winner (lowest total individual times to finish each stage) received e450,000.

The fastest stage speed was 50.355 km/h by Mario Cipollini in 1999 from Laval to

Blois (194.5 km).

3.2 Most Popular Bike Race Type in the US: Criterium Rac-
ing

Roughly speaking, the types of bicycle races can be categorized based on the time

it takes to complete the race as shown in Table 3-1. The most popular race type

in the US is called a Criterium Race, which falls into single-day races category. A

Criterium Racing event is held in one day and consists of several races. Each race is

held on a short course (usually less than 5 km) in the form of several laps of a circuit.

The duration of the race commonly is in one hour, which is much shorter than those

that take several days such as the Tour de France. However, it has appreciably higher

average speed and intensity.

A Criterium Race event begins with all the racers at the starting line. Sometimes

different categories of athletes race together. For example, in the USA, the Mens

22
 Figure 3.2: 2010 Tour de France Course.

Single-Day Races Stage Races Ultra Marathon

One Day Multiple Days

Table 3.1: Bicycle racing categories

23
 Figure 3.3: The Mass Start at a Criterium race.

Field (Pro, Cat 1, Cat 2, and sometimes Cat 3) race together. In order for all the

athletes in the same race to have the same starting conditions, all racers start at the

same time and same place. However, when the number of racers is too large, it is

impossible to fit all of them at the same starting line. In these cases, the racers stand

in a big pack before they begin as shown in Figure 3-3.

A term in bike racing called the Mass Start is used to describe this kind of starting

of the race where a large number of competitors gather at the starting line and wait

for the start of the race. Mass starts can result in falls or crashes among the racers,

since the athletes want to be in the leading position as soon as the race starts.

24
 In fact, crashes among racers happen a lot as soon as the starting gun is fired.

These and other crashes cause racers to be out of their racing position, which can

cause a rider to be lap or more behind. Even more, some riders can get hurt and be

unable to race anymore. Therefore, it requires a mix of good technical biking skills

in a Criterium event for example, the ability to corner smoothly and holding the

line on the road at the same time also to ride rapidly, sharply, and safely within a

large group with a sudden sprint acceleration technique to pass other riders.

During a race, it is very common for riders to become drop-out racers; in other

words, riders who give up the race. There are various reasons to produce drop-out

racers. One reason is the rider gives up based on his will. For example, he feels his

condition is not quite good or he can not get the position they want; therefore, he

gives up in the middle of the race to preserve his energy for the race that will take

place the next day. Another reason is the rider becomes a lap-down racer (relatively,

the athlete is in a lap less than normal athletes called lap-on rider). For example,

lap-on riders are in lap 10 and the lap-down riders are in lap 9 or less. Since lap-down

riders have lower speed than lap-on riders who are very likely to hit lap-down riders

from the back with intensive higher speed, to avoid dangerous mass crashes, the race

officials have to pull out those lap-down riders; in other words, force them to give up

the race.

When the first rider finishes the required laps, the winner is determined and he or

she takes an extra lap called a victory lap. Meanwhile, the remaining qualified riders

may continue to vie for places until all have finished the required laps bringing an

end to the race.

25
3.3 Race Official Problems Associated with Criterium Rac-
ing

Race officials are the persons who monitor the whole race. They are responsible

for the integrity of the race, rider safety during the race and the official results, which

are publically displayed right after the race. Currently the way that they do their job

is to stay on the start/finish line and record every racers number as he or she sees

riders passing by. However in a single race, there could be hundreds of riders passing

by the start/finish line close to100 times (for example, multiple categories of racers

racing together). Therefore, race officials have to keep track of at least 100,000 bits

of information. With limited human memory, the best race officials can do is to track

a few leading riders in a single race; in other words, race officials typically only have

the results of the top 10 riders of any given race. However, often in the last lap a

lap-down rider will get into a pack of lap-on rider. Sometimes the lap-down rider will

claim that he finished with the lap-on group. At this time, the race officials need solid

proof to show the rider is lap-down in order to maintain the integrity of the official

race result.

Not only that, some human-unintended incident will block the race official from

seeing a race number identification, which may affect the integrity of the race results.

For example, in a race containing some muddy section designed as part of the race

course, riders fall into the mud as shown in Figure 3-5. At this time, the riders racer

number will be covered with mud and becomes illegible. Riders may put a jacket

on because it starts to rain or a riders racer number gets rubbed because of a crash.

Two riders pass race official side by side and one rider blocks the racer number of the

26
 Figure 3.4: A Racers Number May Be Obscured If He Falls in Mud.

other side. Thus, race officials need a way to help identify the racer number that is

unidentifiable by human eyes.

These problems point to the need for a system equipped with the ability to auto-

matically track ALL riders in a race. This system should give race officials the ability

to allow more racers in a given race and at the same time make it safer with more

accurate results. In fact, race officials can easily determine the drop-out racers so

that they can be officially removed whenever deemed appropriate by the officials. For

example, in a hundred lap race, racer No.1 did 50 laps, racer No.2 did 51 laps, and

racer No.3 did 55 laps. Even though they did not finish the race, officials can still

put them in the correct finishing order based on knowing how many laps each racer

completed.

27
 Now consider theres an accident crash, suddenly there are a number of racers that

are not in the lead lap. These racers are missing a lap. With the ability to track

all racers, now somebody, who crashes during the race, can continue by going to the

wheel pit and get a good bike to get back in the race. Based on the result provided

by the system at the end of the race, race officials can decide whether or not to give

those riders a free lap. Note that the race officials have what is supposed to be the

average time it takes to finish one lap. For example the race official can check, say

this guy was out 10 laps and then got back in the race. In this case, he took way

too long to get back into the race (this would not be fair because he took a long

break). Therefore, this system will help race officials to know how many laps each

racer misses after an accident. This proposed system can also compare those racer

numbers that miss laps to the racer numbers that showed up in the wheel pit. With

this information, the racer officials can determine whether a free lap can be given or

not. Or some racer just crashes back to the bottom of the hill then takes a short cut

to jump back on the course. Then that doesnt count! He is a lap down (for example,

in a ten lap race, he only did nine laps).

The ability to track all rides in a race also benefits coaches in terms of training

his riders. The riders can have the competition with himself based on his own results,

which should improve with time and training regiment.

3.4 Needed properties of race system solution

Based on the previous discussion, the most important property that the Criterium

Race officials require for such a system is the ability to track all racers in a sufficient

fast manner. The next property Criterium Race officials care is the impact of the

28
system introduced in the race; in other words, the way the system can be integrated

into the sport without interfering with the athletes as they normally do the race.

Finally, it must be a low cost solution so that it can be used for a wide variety of

races and not just the largest and most popular ones. To sum up, the system has to

have the following three properties:

Accurately track each and every racer in a sufficiently fast manner

Least impact on the race.

Low cost

These bike race system properties will be used in the next chapter to define a

solution that can satisfy these requirements.

29
 CHAPTER 4

HARDWARE IMPLEMENTATION

4.1 Proposed Core technology

In order to accurately track each and every racer in a sufficiently rapid and low

cost manner, one must incorporate an existing technology that has been used to solve

a similar problem in a more massive marketplace. Thus, it is most appropriate to

consider passive UHF RFID technology, which is used to track pallets and cases as

they flow through a logistic system. Instead of tagging and tracking items, each and

every rider in the race is tagged and tracked so that when the rider passes through

a coverage zone, he will be seen by the RFID system. Recall that the RFID system

transmits an EM wave that illuminates the tag and causes it to create a modulated

return signal that is detected by the reader system. Once the tag number is detected

by the reader system, the associated timestamp is used to accurately determine the

lap or split time for each racer. This way, the first property required of our proposed

racer system is met.

The basic low cost design of the passive UHF RFID tags also makes them ideal

for this application. Since they do not use a battery, they are ready to go whenever

the racer wants: the racer doesnt have to do anything. Plus passive tags are very

30
inexpensive such that when a tag is damaged by any accident in the race, one can

simply obtain a new tag and go back into the race.

Since the capture movement of a passive RFID system is performed wirelessly

through an EM wave, by carefully taking EM wave propagation into consideration,

the RFID reader antenna system can be integrated into this sport so that it has the

least impact on the racers, fans, and venue. Next, lets see how to design and layout

the passive RFID system so that it can satisfy all the desired system properties.

4.2 Minimal Race Impact System Design

A passive RFID system is composed of 4 components: 1) reader, 2) reader antenna,

3) passive tag and 4) computer system. There are many options to integrate these

various components into the race. However, one has to think about how to integrate

the RFID system such that it has minimal impact on the race.

Let us consider the current way that the race officials do their job. First, they

stay at the start/finish line to record every racers number by hand. Clearly, this is

the most important place, and obviously, the reader antennas have to be located here

to track the racers just as seen by the race officials. With this in mind, lets look at

whats already in place at the start/finish line before system integration since the best

way to integrate the system with minimal impact is to use what is already a part of

the race.

Figure 4-1 shows a typical bike race finish line. There is a race official platform

beside the track, and a truss over and on either side of the finish line. The platform is

used to properly position the race officials and announcers. The truss is used to mark

31
Figure 4.1: Race finish line.

32
the finish line and typically has the race sponsors banners hanging from it. There

may also be a high-speed video camera at the finish line for photo-finishes.

The truss is where all riders must pass through in each lap during the race; thus,

it turns out to be an ideal place to deploy the RFID reader antennas to capture riders

as they are passing by. Plus if one can conceal reader antennas on the truss, then no

new structures are added to the race since the truss is already part of the race. Next,

since these antennas are connected to the reader via an RF cable, the reader can be

concealed on the truss as well. Finally, the computer system can be placed on the

race official platform. This computer can then be loaded with customized software

so that the race officials can sit in front of the computer to monitor the whole race

in an automated and complete way.

4.3 Truss Antenna Deployment

Next, lets think about the most logical place to mount the reader antennas on

the truss. There are two possible places to deploy the RFID reader antennas on the

truss to track the riders: off to the sides of the truss and/or on top of the truss.

Another possibility is to deploy the antennas directly on the track. Obviously, this

would change the race since it would introduce a new surface section that is different

than the normal race track. In order to minimize this difference, these antennas could

be concealed into the ground, if it is a dirt track. However, this would most likely

increase the system complexity and cost and many races are run on paved streets.

Thus, the ground deployment concept is not the best.

Discounting the ground option, the best choices are off to the sides of the truss

or on top of the truss. Let us consider deploying the antennas off to one side of the

33
truss pointing towards the track. The first immediate problem comes into play is

the signal blockage by racers when 2 or more racers are passing by the truss. Note

that the human body contains mostly water that highly attenuates the RFID signal,

which implies that a human will tend to act like a structure blocking the RFID

signal. Adding RFID antennas on the other side could help solve this signal blockage

problem; however, there can be many riders passing under the truss at the same time.

In addition if one reader is used for sake of low cost consideration, then the antenna

RF cabling problem comes into play, since the road width of the course could varying

from 10 feet to 30 feet. If two readers are used, then the hardware cost of the system

goes up and the synchronization of two readers adds to the system complexity. Thus,

this is not an ideal placement of the reader antennas either.

So, let us consider the top mounted antenna deployment concept. In this case, the

reader antennas are mounted on the bottom face of the top truss structure looking

down on the track. This location is very flexible in that the antennas can be used

to cover the full width of the truss independent of its width. Further, the reader

can be mounted centrally so that the cabling of the reader antennas is minimized.

Since the antennas are looking down from above, there is no problem with one racer

blocking another. Therefore, the best place to deploy the antennas appears to be on

the bottom side of the top truss. This will be tested and verified later during the field

probe studies and actual races.

4.4 Helmet Deployed Tag

Now lets think about the best place to deploy the tag. There are 3 possible places

to tag the rider: 1) bike, 2) rider and 3) helmet. The bike is composed of metal

34
 Figure 4.2: Helmet with passive UHF RFID tag attached.

and/or graphite fibers and the rider is composed of 70 percent water. These two

options are RF unfriendly materials to low cost passive tags. It is possible to use

specially-designed tags that are meant to work on metal; however, these tags are

much more expensive and tend to be bulkier than passive tags. Therefore, the bike

and rider are not ideally suited tag deployment locations.

Since the racers helmet is mainly composed of very thin plastic and foam, it is

ideal for this application and integrates well with low cost passive tags. Riders are

required to wear their helmets to participate in the race. As shown in Figure 4-

2, a helmet with a passive UHF RFID tag attached shows no big difference to the

riders as they perform the race. Plus, the propagation environment between the

RFID reader antenna on the top of the truss and the tag on the helmet is virtually

35
air, which provides minimal propagation loss. Thus, the combination of the RFID

reader antennas mounted on top of the truss and passive tags attached to the helmets

appears to be ideal for this application. This will be verified from the actual race

results.

4.5 Truss Zone Coverage Using Novel RFID Antenna De-

ployment

When it comes to RFID reader antennas, RFID system designers have tended

to think of ONE beam emitted from each antenna. This single beam could be very

narrow, broad or even shaped. For example a pencil beam in a radar system serves

to define the precise angular direction of a target. It typically has a sharp beam

in azimuth and a shaped beam in elevation to search most effectively for aircraft.

In fact, the term beam really indicates the region where EM energy is distributed.

With this in mind, antenna engineers manipulate this energy region depending on

the application specifications.

Now lets think about an RFID application. The problem given is very simple

and straightforward: to be able to excite the tag in a desired region regardless of

the tag orientation and position in the lowest cost way. For antenna engineers, this

can be done with two basic approaches: illuminate the desired region by steering a

single dual-polarized beam, or by combining a number of single static beams from

multiple static antennas. Note the common enemies for both of these methodologies

are fading and cost. By steering the beam, the fading issue can minimized using

beam and polarization diversities; however, this approach is obviously very expensive

and does not match well with the goals of this application. To overcome this cost

limitation, one can use multiple static beams coming from multiple antennas. This

36
antenna will provide multiple beams and polarizations; however one easily runs into

a dilemma: some tags are excited in undesired regions and some tags are not excited

in the desired region. In order to solve this dilemma with limited RF power, more

antennas are typically introduced which in turn increases the hardware cost.

With the above in mind, its clear that what one really needs is a novel antenna

that has multiple static beams rather than one fixed beam. Then properly placing a

small number of these novel antennas in different positions, the desired region, called

a zone, can be designed to excite all the tags regardless of the tag orientation and

position. This philosophy combines the merit of the two methodologies above using

very few antennas: novel antenna placement in different positions to simulate beam

steering, and novel antennas with multiple beams to simulate multiple single beam

antennas. In other words, beam and polarization diversity is built into a single novel

antenna; then, spatial diversity is achieved by using multiple antennas to properly

cover the desired region of illumination, which is called a zone. Next, lets see how

this novel RFID reader antenna is deployed on the truss.

4.5.1 Defining the Truss RFID Zone

Figure 4-3(a) shows a typical finish line truss which is around 10 feet tall and 20

feet wide. The desired truss RFID coverage zone used to track the riders is shown in

Figure 4-3(b). Considering riders will pass through the truss in the riding direction

at any spot along the 20 feet width of the truss, the width of the truss RFID zone

is typically 20 feet or wider. Also, considering riders in different age category in

combination with the size of the bike, the height of the tag on the helmet above the

37
Figure 4.3: Finish line truss and the desired truss RFID coverage zone.

38
ground is most likely varying from 2 feet to 6 feet. Hence the desired truss RFID

zone is 20 feet wide and from 2 to 6 feet above the ground.

Four 7-foot novel RFID antennas are mounted on top of the truss and looking

down to cover this zone. Note that the tag on the helmet is oriented along the riding

direction. The four 7-foot novel RFID antennas on top of the truss have to illuminate

this zone without fading in the polarization along the riding direction. Next lets see

how to deploy the four 7-foot novel RFID antennas to reach this goal.

4.5.2 Proposed Novel RFID Antenna Deployment

For the sake of discussion, define the x- y- and z-axes on the truss as shown

in Figure 4-4(c). Figure 4-4(b) shows the proposed antenna deployment to cover

the truss RFID zone in Figure 4-4(c) using four 7-foot novel RFID antennas. To

understand this proposed antenna deployment, a simplified model is used to plot the

energy distribution of a single 7-foot novel RFID antenna over the illumination region

shown in Figure 4-4(a). Recall the tag on the helmet is deployed along the riding

direction. Within this truss zone, the RFID radiated energy that is polarized along

the riding direction is of most interest because it excites the tag most efficiently. Since

the racer can rotate his head during the time that he is passing through this zone,

the antennas must provide very good polarization performance in both the y and z

directions as well as shown in Figure 4.4 (d). One can observe that the dominant

polarization to excite the tag is obviously in y-direction and the minor polarization is

in z-direction. Next, lets look at the energy distribution over the truss illumination

region for both y- and z-polarizations.

39
Figure 4.4: Antenna deployment over truss RFID zone and polarization coverage.

40
4.5.3 Proper Illumination of the Truss RFID Zone

Figure 4-5 shows the energy distribution of antenna 1 as well as a combination

of antenna 1 and antenna 2 over the illumination region defined in Figure 4-4(a). In

terms of y-polarization, antenna 1 has a broadside beam pointing directly down and

covering roughly 8 feet wide. In terms of z-polarization, antenna 1 has two beams

pointing +40 and -40 degrees. Combining antenna 1 and antenna 2, one gets two

broadside beams in y-polarization with roughly a 1 foot wide null gap right under

the 1 foot spacing between antenna 1 and antenna 2. This 1 foot null gap, on the

contrary, doesnt exist in z-polarization due to +40 and -40 degree beam nature in

z-polarization; however, it has nulls right under the antenna. Also, there is a roughly

5 foot wide null strip off the right side of the illumination region in the dominant

y-polarization. In order to properly cover the 20 foot wide illumination region in the

dominant y-polarization, more antennas have to be used.

Figure 4-6 shows an idea to fill in the two null areas of the illumination region

in the dominant y-polarization. Since placing two antennas with 1 foot spacing off

the left hand side of the illumination region brings roughly 16 foot wide coverage to

the left of the 20 foot wide illumination region, by using a symmetric arrangement

as shown in the upper right of Figure 4-6, one can bring the same set of antennas

(equivalent to antenna 3 and antenna 4 in Figure 4-4(b)) to the right hand side of

the illumination region to cover roughly 16 feet to the right. Combining these two

sets of antennas, the two null areas of each set will be compensated by the other set.

This in turn properly covers the 20 foot wide illumination region in the dominant

y-polarization.

41
Figure 4.5: Simulated RF illumination of truss RFID zone with one and two antennas.

Figure 4.6: Coverage regions of two sets of antennas and their combined coverage
region.

42
Figure 4.7: Simulated RF illumination of truss RFID zone with three and four an-
tennas.

43
 Figure 4-7 shows the simulation result using this four antenna concept. One can

see that with another set of antennas, it not only properly covers the illumination

region in terms of the dominant y-polarization but also z-polarization. Observe the

dynamic range of the energy under the combination of four antennas across the truss

zone (shown in the bottom of Figure 4-7). The dominant y-polarization has about an

11.1 dB dynamic range and y-polarization has about a 10.8 dB dynamic range based

on the simulation result. Commercial passive RFID tags typically have at least 30dB

dynamic range. This is saying that the energy distribution within the truss zone is

pretty uniform in both dominant y- and z-polarizations. This in turn suggests the

energy of polarization along the riding direction is pretty uniform across the truss

zone.

It may be supposed that only three of the 7-foot antennas could cover this same

region instead of four. While this may be possible, most commercially available RFID

readers have four antenna ports so it is prudent to include the fourth antenna for extra

diversity and uniformity; it is noted that the cost of each antenna is substantially less

than the reader itself. Next a real measurement using real tags and reader together

with the antenna deployment shown in Figure 4-4(b) is performed to simulate the

various tags passing through the truss zone. Its is expected that all the tags will be

excited when passing through the truss zone with nearly uniform energy distribution.

4.6 Real Measurement on the Proposed Novel RFID An-

tenna Deployment

A measurement is performed to study how the proposed antenna deployment

shown in Figure 4-4(b) performs using an experimental technique. The goal for this

measurement is to prove that each and every tag passing by the truss zone will be

44
 Figure 4.8: Dual-polarized tag panel for probing RFID coverage zone.

excited regardless of its orientation and position in the truss zone. To do so, a

dual-polarization tag panel as a probe shown in Figure 4-8 is used. This panel is

then carried through the truss zone such that tags passing by the truss zone in y-

and z-polarizations are simulated, respectively. The percent of the number of tags

excited after passing through the truss zone is then calculated. It is expected that

the proposed antenna deployment will bring a 100 percent read rate for both y- and

z-polarizations.

4.6.1 Measurement Setup

As shown in Figure 4-9(a) and (b), the antenna deployment on top of the truss is

exactly the same as 4-4(b) except that antennas are backed with a big metal plate.

This metal plate is used to force the energy radiating upward from the antennas to

be reflected downward toward the illumination region. Green arrows in the picture

45
Figure 4.9: Measurement Setup on the Proposed Novel RFID Antenna Deployment.

indicate the spot where the RF cable goes into the antennas. A reader is placed right

on the center of the deployment and is connected to all four antennas via RF cables.

Considering the distance between the green arrows and reader, 15 feet cables are used

to connect antenna 1 and antenna 4 to the reader; whereas, 5 feet cables are used to

connect antenna 2 and antenna 3 to the reader. To overcome the higher attenuation

in the longer cables, the reader output ports connected to antenna 1 and antenna 4

are commanded to output 32.5dBm, and antenna 2 and antenna 3 are commanded

to output 30dBm. A long Ethernet cable is used to interface the reader and a PC.

Collected data is sent from the reader to the PC via this Ethernet cable.

As shown in Figure 4-9(c), nineteen equally spaced (1 feet) masking tape markers

are placed on the ground directly under the truss. These markers are meant to indicate

the way the dual polarization tag panel will be placed to pass by the truss zone. Next

46
 Figure 4.10: Panel Orientation in Y Polarization.

lets see how the dual polarization tag panel is used to simulate tags passing through

the truss zone in y- and z-polarizations.

4.6.2 Measurement Result in Y polarization Setup

In order simulate tags passing by the truss in y-polarization, the dual polarization

panel is oriented in the plane parallel to x-y plane as shown in Figures 4-10(a) and

(b). Then the panel is held 2 feet from the ground such that the height of the truss

zone is covered by the panel. Then the panel is moved along the y direction indicated

by the dashed green arrows in Figure 4-10(a) and (b). This way, when the panel is

passing under the truss, 64 tags oriented in y-pol and x-pol, respectively, in the dual

tag panel as shown in Figure 4-10(c) is passing through the truss zone. The reader is

then commanded to catch these tags as the panel passes under the truss.

47
Figure 4.11: 20 Passes Across the Width of the Truss for Y Polarization Measurement.

After this complete scan along all the marker lines, the tag read rate along the

height of the truss zone can be calculated from the number of excited tags out of all

the tags on the panel. To see how tags are excited along the width of the truss zone,

20 passes across the width of the truss as shown in Figure 4-11 are measured. Table

4-1shows the read rate based on 64 x-polarization and 64 y-polarization tags on the

panel across the truss width. The results show that the proposed antenna deployment

covers tags not only that are y-polarization, but also covers the x-polarization which

is the radial polarization direction of the antennas.

4.6.3 Measurement Result in Z polarization Setup

In order simulate tags passing by the truss in z-polarization, the dual polarization

panel is oriented in the plane parallel to the x-z plane as shown on Figures 4-12(a) and

(b). Again, the panel is held 2 feet from the ground such that the height of the truss

zone is covered by the panel. Then the panel is moved along the y direction indicated

48
Pass 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
x-pol 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
y-pol 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
Pass 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
x-pol 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
y-pol 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

Table 4.1: Y-Pol read rate across the truss width

Figure 4.12: Panel Orientation in Z Polarization.

Pass 1 2 3 4 5
x-pol 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
y-pol 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

Table 4.2: Z-Pol read rate across the truss width

49
Figure 4.13: 5 Passes Across the Width of the Truss for Z Polarization Measurement.

by the dashed green arrows shown in Figures 4-12(a) and (b). This motion tells how

well the tags are excited along the height of the truss zone. To cover the full width

of the truss zone, 5 passes across the width of the truss were performed as shown in

Figure 4-13. Table 4-2 shows the read rate based on the 64 x-polarization and 64

z-polarization tags on the probe panel. It shows the proposed antenna deployment

provides 100 percent coverage in both z and y polarizations.

4.6.4 Summary

The measurement results show that the proposed antennas deployment provides

very good polarization performance as a rider passes under the truss. It covers not

only y and z polarizations but also the radial x polarization. In other words, it covers

all possible orientations of the tags on the helmet as the rider passes under the truss.

This is saying that no matter how the rider turns their head as he passes by the truss:

left or right; up or down, the tag on the helmet will be properly excited so that it

will be recorded by the RFID system.

50
 CHAPTER 5

SOFTWARE IMPLEMENTATION

The reader used in the proposed bike race system is an Impinj UHF Gen 2 Speed-

wayR RFID Reader. The Mach1 API released by Impinj is used to work with the

reader to collect tag data via an Ethernet cable. This API (application interface)

handles all the lower level communication protocol information between reader and

the computer system. The reader in the system is mainly used to capture the tag

numbers attached to the helmets of the riders passing by the truss zone as discussed

in the previous chapter. In the computer system connected to the reader and sitting

at the race official platform, a software routine is implemented to track riders by

collecting and processing the data coming from the reader. As shown in Figure 5-1,

this software is composed of 3 subroutines: raw data collection subroutine, raw data

processing subroutine and display subroutine.

The data collection subroutine is implemented in the C programming language

and used to collect raw data using the Mach1 API. As soon as the raw data is gen-

erated, the processing subroutine, which is implemented in the Python programming

language, is activated to process the raw data. The processed result is then sent to

the display program that is used to track the status of each and every racer. The

51
Figure 5.1: Subroutines Used to Collect, Process, and Display RFID Tag Data.

52
 Figure 5.2: Impinj Reader States.

fundamental functionality of this software implementation lies in the raw data col-

lection subroutine. In order to collect this data from the reader, it is very important

to understand how the Impinj reader works as defined by the Mach1 API supplied

software.

5.1 Mach1 API and Impinj Reader Status

As shown in Figure 5-2, the Impinj UHF Gen 2 SpeedwayR RFID Reader has 5

states: power off, ready, init, idle and operation. The reader status can be recognized

in terms of the two LED lights on the front panel of the reader: power LED and

status LED as shown in Figure 5-3.

These Impinj status states are defined as follows:

1. Power off: This state is when the reader is not powered up. Both power and

status LED lights are off.

2. Ready: As soon as the reader is powered, the power LED light is turned on.

Then the status LED will experience a series of changes: red for 4 seconds, then

off for 30 seconds and finally it remains solid green. During this series of changes,

53
 Figure 5.3: Speedway Reader and Indicator LEDs.

the reader has booted up the embedded system within the reader. When both LED

lights are solid green, this is indicating the embedded system has booted up and is

ready to accept a Mach1 API connection.

3. Init: Before taking control of the reader via the Mach1 API, commands issued

from the Mach1 API and responses from the embedded system are going back and

forth to prepare handing over the control to the Mach1 API. This process from the

API point of view is booting or initializing the reader. Once this process is done,

the reader is in the init state. However in this state, it cannot perform any RFID

operations before further regulatory configuration information is properly supplied to

the reader.

4. Idle: Before the reader starts to operate, a regulatory configuration using the

Mach1 API is required to enforce the reader to work under regulatory policy set

by law. For example, in FCC part 15.247 environments, the reader cannot operate

in a fixed frequency but must hop around available channels. Once the regulatory

54
 Figure 5.4: Top level Block Diagram of Raw Data Collection Subroutine.

configuration is set, the reader enters the idle state from the init state. At this point,

the status LED is flashing green, which indicates that the reader is ready to accept

any command to perform RFID operation.

5. Operation: In this status, RFID operation, such as read, kill, and write tags,

can be performed. In tracking the riders, only the read tag operation is used.

5.2 Raw Data Collection Subroutine

The raw data collection subroutine is meant for collecting data from the reader.

Figure 5-4 shows the top view function block diagram of the raw data collection

subroutine.

The first block of this routine is used to push the reader into its operational status

so that it constantly performs the read tag operation. Once a tag is discovered by

the reader, the tag data is immediately sent to the PC side via the Mach1 API. Then

the data is stored in sequential files that are generated every 5 seconds, for example.

55
Figure 5.5: First Block in Top level Block Diagram of Raw Data Collection Subrou-
tine.

56
5.2.1 Command Reader to Collect Tag Data

Figure 5-5 shows the detailed implementation of the first block of the routine

shown in Figure 5-4. It starts when the reader is powered up and enters the ready

status. Once the Mach1 API connection is established, a boot reader command is

issued by the Mach1 API in negotiating with the embedded system to get control

of the reader. As soon as the negotiation is done, a command from the Mach1 API

is issued to set the reader working in the FCC part 15.247 implementation. At this

point, the reader is ready to perform RFID operations. The following operation

parameter is set before commanding the reader to perform tag read operation:

i) set RF output power to proper level

ii) set RFID operation to Autoset mode.

5.2.1.1 RFID Operation in Autoset Mode

An optimized algorithm has been developed by Impinj to take care of all the

RFID operational parameters. This algorithm is used to implement a mode called

Autoset mode which continuously self adjusts the operational parameters to reach

optimized read rate during a tag read sequence. This Autoset mode is used constantly

performing the read tag operation. It has been found that this Autoset mode works

better than other modes provided by Impinj for this bike race application. This is very

important because it provides a very simple way to control the Impinj. Otherwise,

the reader user has to become familiar with all the operational parameters associated

with the Impinj reader. This also means that the Impinj reader is very well suited

for this application.

57
5.2.1.2 Sending Tag Data to PC Buffer

Once a tag is discovered within the reader, a timestamp, associated with the tag

is generated. The timestamp is the number of seconds since epoch (Jan, 1, 1970)

with microsecond precision and indicates when a tag is discovered. Since the reader

is commanded to constantly perform the read tag operation, the Mach1 API is used

to command the reader to send the timestamp associated with the tag number, RSSI

and antenna number (for sake of discussion, lets call it tag data) to the buffer at the

PC side via an Ethernet cable interface, as soon as a rider passes the truss area and

the tag on the helmet is discovered. Next this tag data in the PC buffer is dumped

into sequential files called the raw data files that will be further processing.

5.2.2 Raw Data Preparation

Figure 5-6 shows the detailed implementation of the second block of the routine

shown in Figure 5-4. This routine is mainly dumping tag data from the PC buffer

into a new raw data file that is generated every 5 seconds, for example.

Figure 5-7 shows content of the raw data file generated. It contains basically two

parts: 1) header and 2) tag data information. In the header field, the time the file

was generated and the associated RFID operational parameters are specified. The

tag data field is the place where the tag data in the PC buffer is dumped. Note

that the timestamp field is in seconds with microsecond precision. With this in mind,

now observe tag number 335331000000000002000064. Subtracting the last timestamp

when the tag is observed (1105728482.253488) from the first timestamp when the tag

is observed (1105728481.933928), one obtains 0.31956. Then with this 0.31956 sec,

antenna numbers that see the tag are 8, 1 and 2. This is telling the software that

58
Figure 5.6: Second Block in Top level Block Diagram of Raw Data Collection Sub-
routine.

59
 Figure 5.7: Raw Data File Example.

the riders tag number (335331000000000002000064) was detected nine times by the

reader within 0.4 seconds using different antennas when passing by the truss zone.

In other words, the reader is doing its best in switching antennas to catch the riders

passing by the truss zone in a very short period of time. This in turn, generates

multiple detections of a rider in a very short period of time.

5.3 Raw Data Processing Subroutine

Since the system is normally used to keep track each and every racer during a

whole day race event, the hardware setting up has to be completed at least 30 min

60
prior to the start of the first race. Once the hardware setting up is done, the software

is kicked off: data will come to the PC constantly until the end of the whole day race.

With this in mind, its very important to process the raw data coming every 5 seconds

into useful information that can be used by the race officials, which is the goal of the

raw data processing subroutine that is discussed next.

Figure 5-8 shows the block diagram of the raw data processing subroutine. Observe

that the implementation is built upon the manipulation of a big race summary table.

The big table can be viewed as a data base organizing the lap time of all racers

recorded in the raw data file as they pass through the truss zone. This big table

will be expanded as races goes on. In the mean time, this big table can be used for

implementation of any functional application that race official wants to see during or

after the race. Next, lets see how to create this big table.

5.3.1 Big Table Construction

Figure 5-9 shows the big table conceptually. The first column contains the racers

tag number that is used throughout the whole day event. Following each racers tag

number are the absolute time stamps detected as each racer passes through the truss

zone. Note that each time stamp column is associated with another trip through the

truss, which implies that the racer has completed another lap. Next, lets see how to

construct this big table as raw data continually flows into this processing code.

Figure 5-10 shows the big table construction process. First, let us consider the

initialization of the big table with riders tag numbers only input, as shown in Figure

5-10(a). For simplicity, lets assume there are only 3 racers joining the race, namely

BC0566, BC0251, and BC0570. Next the first raw data set is coming as shown in

61
Figure 5.8: Block Diagram of Raw Data Processing Subroutine.

Figure 5.9: Big Table Concept.

62
Figure 5-10(b). At this point, since the reader is working in auto mode, the racers

tag number will be captured multiple times by different antennas as he or she passes

through the truss zone. As a result, there are various timestamps recorded coming

from the repeated captures of the same tag. As shown in Figure 5-10(b) and (c), the

first timestamp is used as the timing for the rider as he or she passes through the

truss zone. Figure 5-10(d) summarizes this whole process in a block diagram. After

five seconds, as soon as the next raw data file arrives, steps in Figure 5-10(d) are

executed again and the big table is expended; so on and so forth until the end of the

race.

5.3.2 Big Table Modification

Figure 5-11 presents a big table constructed by raw data files from a entire real

race in a dot plot form. The y axis is the rider tag umber and the x axis is the time

the rider is detected as he passes the truss zone. In this plot, there are two things

that should be noticed. First is that there are some extra dots before the start of the

race and some more after the end of the race. Second, there are some dots missing

(called missing laps) in the regular spacing dot sequence between the race start and

finsh. Lets look at those two issues in more detail.

5.3.2.1 Remove Extra Dots Before Race Start and After Race End

Depending on the way the race goes, there are extra dots before and after the

race. For example, right before the race starts, the riders are allowed to take warm

up laps on the race course. Further during the mass start of the race, lots of racers

wait right under the truss zone. Situations like these will cause extra dots to appear

before the race actually start. Extra dots after the race could happen when riders

63
Figure 5.10: Big Table Construction.

64
Figure 5.11: Big Table Before Modification.

65
ride pass the truss in reverse direction after the end of the race. Thus, these two

kinds of extra dots or associated time stamps can be easily removed in the start and

end of the race is precisely known.

5.3.2.2 Filling Missing Laps

Since the reader is switching between antennas as fast as possible to catch all the

riders passing through the truss zone, when a large group of riders is passing by the

truss zone in a very short period of time, it may rarely happen that the reader will

fail to catch some tags passing through the non-illumination region of the current

working antenna. Thus, some lap dots maybe missing (called missing laps) in the

regular spacing dot sequence between the start and end of the race. These missing

dots can be easily filled using the riders average lap times; in other words, use the

riders previous lap times to determine how to fill these few missing cases.

The big table is shown in Figure 5-11 after removing the extra dots and filling the

missing laps. Note that the time along x axis is calibrated with respect the race start

time. With this modified big table, race officials can easily see what actually happened

during the complete race. For example, race official racers can easily identify the lap-

behind racers and drop them off. Further more, this modified big table can also be

used to show the lap time for each and every racer. Also real time rider placment

for all riders during the race is also feasible except for photo finishes. All these

functionalities can be put into display routine GUI that is extremely useful for the

race officials.

66
Figure 5.12: Big Table After Modification.

67
 CHAPTER 6

REAL RACE DEMONSTRATION RESULTS

6.1 2009 Ture De Grandview

Starting in early 1990s, each year in Grandview, Ohio, streets are closed to form

a challenging race course for amateur and professional bicycle racers. The challeng-

ing course attracts the top cyclists to race around its sharp turns, steep inclines and

grueling demands. It is called the Tour de Grandview, which has featured lots of

world-class professional bike racers, that have won national and international races.

The proposed RFID system solution was beta tested during the 2009 Tour de Grand-

view to track each and every professional rider in the main race.

6.1.1 System Setup

Figure 6-1 shows the course for the 2009 Tour de Grandview race. The professional

race was 40 laps and each lap was about 1.13 miles long around the hilly course. Figure

6-2 shows the look at the start/finish line that is marked blue line in Figure 6-1. There

was a race official platform and a truss at the start/finish line. As shown in Figure

6-3, four 7 foot antennas were deployed on the bottom face of the truss to cover 20

wide truss zone. The reader was placed in the middle of the antenna deployment. A

68
 Figure 6.1: 2009 Tour de Grandview Race Course.

long Ethernet cable was used to interface the reader and the computer system, which

was located on the race official platform.

This system continually recorded data during complete race. Figure 6-4 shows the

racers as they get ready at the start/finish line and wait for the race to begin. Note

that the red circle highlights where blue painters tape was used to attach the RFID

tags to the racers helmets. Figure 6-5(a) shows a large group of racers as they form

a long line during the first laps of the race. As race goes, racers spread out more as

shown in Figure 6-5(b). In either case, its very difficult for race officials to track each

and every racer during the race. Figure 6-6 shows the snap shot at the end of the

race when the winner is passing by the finish line.

69
 Figure 6.2: Start/Finish line in 2009 Tour de Grandview Race.

Figure 6.3: RFID System Continually Recording Data During Complete Race.

70
Figure 6.4: Racers Get Ready for Start.

Figure 6.5: During the Race.

71
 Figure 6.6: Exciting Finish to Race.

6.1.2 Race Result

Figure 6-7 shows the big table of the race after modification. The x axis represents

the time the racer is captured passing through the truss zone. The y axis shows the

tag RFID number of the racer. One can easily see that those who have 40 dots moving

along the x axis are racers that finished the race; whereas those who have less than 40

dots moving along the x axis have dropped out of the race. Figure 6-8 puts together

the top 10 racer placement generated by the race officials and by the proposed RFID

system. One can see that the RFID result obtained by the proposed system agrees

very well with race official except the non-tagged racer.

Based on the data shown on Figure 6-7, one easily envisions how the lap times

for each racer can be obtained. Figure 6-9 shows the lap time of the winner and the

72
 Figure 6.7: Overall Race Results.

Figure 6.8: Race Results from Race Officials and RFID System.

73
 Figure 6.9: Lap Time of the Race Winner and the Finished 2nd.

2nd finished. Looking back to Figure 6-6 with the last lap time in Figure 6-9(a) and

(b), one can observe that the system can distinguish racers separated a foot apart

and gives 0.001 min precision in lap time.

6.2 The 2009 Cyclocross Derby Cup in Louisville, Ky

The 2009 US Gran Prix (USGP) of Cyclocross is a series of national races taking

place in 4 different places on four different weekends: the Planet Bike Cup (in Madison

Wisconsin), the Derby City Cup ( in Louisville Kentucky), the Mercer Cup (in New

Jersey), and the Stanley Portland Cup ( in Portland Oregon). The second test of

74
the RFID system is used in the second stop of (USGP) of Cyclocross in Louisville

Kentucky.

Figure 6-10 shows a sketch of the race course used during the Derby City Cup.

Two yellow crosses mark the two spots where RFID systems were deployed along

the racer track. The race course is a looped circuit consisting of 2 sections: on-road

track (red) and off-road track (blue). The off-road track is designed to dissipate riders

physical strength very quickly and slows down the speed of the rider. On the other

hand, the racers can go full speed along the on-road section of the course.

One can see from Figure 6-10 that the off-road section is right on a hill where riders

have to ride up and down through mud, sand, pavement, grass, gravel, or pasture as

shown in Figure 6-11. Needless to say, riders need to be in very strong physical

condition to race through these difficult road conditions.These course conditions are

not the only thing that wears out riders physical strength. As shown in Figure 6-12

sets of wooden barriers are placed along the track, so that the riders need to get

off their bikes, carry their bikes, run through those barriers and finally climb back

on their bikes. The former section is called riding section and the latter are called

running section. These two sections form the off-road track.

6.2.1 System Setup

As shown in Figure 6-10, in the Derby City Cup, two sets of RFID systems were

deployed. The motivation was to demonstrate using two sets of systems that our

proposed system would prevent riders from cheating in that each rider had to pass

both systems in an appropriate time.

75
Figure 6.10: A Sketch of the Race Course in Derby City Cup.

Figure 6.11: Riding Sections of Off-Road Track.

76
 Figure 6.12: Running Sections of Off-Road Track.

Figure 6-13(a) shows the set up at the Finish line and Figure 6-13(b) shows the

setup at the remote site. Both sites have a truss with our proposed antennas at-

tached. Note that a satellite communications antenna system is located at both sites.

The RFID antenna deployment on the truss for both sites are the same as that in

Grandview race. Again, the computer system is sitting in the race official platform

collecting data from the reader on the truss via an Ethernet interface. Whats different

from Grandview race is the satellite communication antenna systems located at both

sites. Note that the remote satellite communication antenna sends its racer data to

the finish line via the satellite links to the Internet. This way, data collected at the

remote site was sent indirectly to the finish line computer system.

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Figure 6.13: Two RFID systems Placed along the Derby City Cup Route.

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 Figure 6.14: First Day Derby City Cup Schedule.

Figure 6-14 shows the first day race schedule. Observe that races 2, 3 and 4 have

multiple categories racing at the same time! Next let see how our system can help

race officials when multiple categories races are taking place at the same time along

the same race track.

6.2.2 Race Result

Figure 6-15 shows the big table of race 2 after modification. In this figure, data

collected from finish line (solid circle) and remote site (cross) are combined together.

One can expect that with the data combination from the two sites in modified big

table, its very easy to catch cheating racers, since in each pair of solid circles and

crosses, one has to have at least one of them.

Next, lets demonstrate how the RFID system helps race officials in tracking riders

within a race having multiple categories taking place at the same time. To do so, race

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Figure 6.15: Big Table of Race 2 During the Derby City Cup.

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results of the 5 categories from the big table in Figure 6-15 are extracted and compared

with the official results. As one will see, in the race having multiple categories, as

soon the category has more and more riders, the placing by human memory starts to

hit its limit. This in turn, shows the value of the RFID tracking system.

6.2.2.1 Masters Women Cat 1/2/3

Figure 6-16(a) shows the big table of Masters Women Cat 1/2/3 category in race

2. There are 7 riders in this category. This big table is obtained from the big table

in Figure 6-15 by extracting the riders belonging to the Masters Women Cat 1/2/3

category. The big table in Figure 6-16(a) then is used to place the rider. Figure

6-16(a) shows the result comparison between the race official and the RFID system.

One can see that the race officials result agrees with the RFID system result. Note

that in Derby City Cup, race officials tried to place each rider even if they did not

finish the race.

6.2.2.2 Junior Girls 10/14

Figure 6-17 shows the big table of Junior Girls 10/14 category in race 2. One can

see again that the RFID system agrees with the race official result. There are 8 riders

in this category which is still within the capability of human memory. One thing

worthy of note is the last rider in the big table shown in Figure 6-17(a), BC0272, is

a dropped out racer. Figure 6-17(b) shows the dropped rider is not placed by race

official. However, the rider can be recognized by how many laps he or she finished as

recorded by the RFID system. This in turn can even place the dropped out riders

based on the laps finished and the time passing through the truss.

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Figure 6.16: Race result of Masters Women Cat 1/2/3.

Figure 6.17: Race result of Junior Girls10/14.

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 Figure 6.18: Race result of Junior Boys 15/16.

6.2.2.3 Junior Boys 15/16

Figure 6-18 shows the big table of Junior Boys 15/16 category in race 2. There are

11 riders in this category. Observe in Figure 6-18(b) that the race official result and

RFID system result agrees for places 1 through 7. However, the race results disagree

among the lap off racers. This is indicating that human memory starts to hit the

limit in that the race officials can only capture so much information. Now the RFID

system in turn becomes a valuable auxiliary for the race officials.

6.2.2.4 Junior Boy 10/14

Figure 6-18 shows the big table of the Junior Boys 10/14 category in race 2. There

were 22 riders in this category. One can see that in Figure 6-18 (b) race officials only

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 Figure 6.19: Race result of Junior Boys 10/14.

can place half of the rider correctly. For the rest of the rider, race officials can rely

on to the RFID system to place them properly.

6.2.2.5 Category 3/4 Women

There were 36 riders in this category which is really a huge number of riders

for human memory. As shown in Figure 6-19(b), the race officials tried to place

the top 16 riders; however, the RFID system and race officials result come into some

disagreement. This is to be expected since one has so many categories racing together.

Nevertheless, by combining the placement from the RFID system and a finish line

camera on the truss, the race officials can produce a very accurate result. Note that

in the big table as shown in Figure 6-19(a),the give up riders and dropped off riders

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 Figure 6.20: Race Result of Category 3/4 Women.

can also be properly placed using the RFID system. This highlights the benefits of

the proposed RFID system and how helpful this system will be to bike race officials.

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 CHAPTER 7

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Owing to well-developed readers and cost reduction in UHF passive tags in recent

years, the foundation of the low cost RFID bike race tracking system is built upon

those two commodity RFID components. After choosing the best reader and tags

in the market place, the optimized signal detection from noise as well as processing

within the tag chip and reader is reached. Whats left is the best deployment to ensure

the best communication link quality between the reader and tag. This goal has to

be achieved using the least system complexity in order to minimze the overall system

cost. This is very difficult to reach using conventional reader antennas because one

has no control in terms of exciting tags outside the desired coverage zone. Note that

the novel RFID reader antennas used here are specifically designed for zone coverage

by providing superior fading control with a minimal number of antennas.

Now that all of the RFID system components are specified, the system has to

be designed to meet all of the race officials defined properties: (1) accurately track

each and every racer in a sufficiently fast manner; (2) have the least impact on the

race; (3) minimize the overall system cost. First of all, the truss-mounted antenna

and helmet deployed tag meets all of these desired properties. Next, the proposed

four novel antenna deployment provide superior coverage for a 20 feet wide truss zone

86
without fading as has been proven in real-world complex races by accurately tracking

each and every racer in a sufficiently fast manner. Whats more, this is done using a

minimal number of antennas; this in turn reduces the system complexity in terms of

hardware and software and therefore this solution has minimal cost.

A complete UHF RFID system for bike races has been demonstrated here via

simulations and actual implementation at two major bike race events. The tag read-

rate performance has been shown to be near 100 percent for a low-cost and easy

to implement solution. The system is also very versatile because it allows multiple

RFID portals to be set up along the race route and coordinated via internet link. The

tags themselves are so low-cost that they are easily replaced and are disposable. It is

expected that this type of system will replace existing race tracking systems that are

less reliable and more expensive and intrusive.

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