RFID Network Planning for Flexible Manufacturing Workshop with Multiple Coverage Requirements

Flexible manufacturing workshops (FMWs) are important part of modern manufacturing enterprises. An optimized layout of radio frequency identifications (RFIDs) in an FMW is of great significance to improve information perception quality and reduce RFID deployment cost. Therefore, the RFID network planning for an FMW is studied in this paper. Firstly, three common coverage requirements are analyzed, and a RFID reader radiation model and an FMW discrete grids model are constructed. Secondly, a 0-1 integer programming-based RFID network planning model is established with the optimization objectives of the RFID deployment cost, reader interference, and reading efficiency. Thirdly, a hierarchical clustering and gradient descent-based network planning approach is proposed to solve the network planning model. An FMW case in a flexible manufacturing enterprise is taken to verify the RFID network planning model and the hierarchical clustering approach. The results show that the proposed model and approach are effective.