Case Study
How to take your Gate Operating Systems to the next level with RFID.
Leveling up Gate Operating Systems with RFID
September 29, 2021
Overview
For over 20 years, smart-Tecs has provided gate and terminal automation solutions to the marine transportation industry. Their offering includes Gate Operating System (GOS) and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) solutions, which help automate and optimize gate operations at terminals to move containers in and out of their facilities with greater speed and efficiency.
The Challenge
Truck throughput is essential to port and terminal operations, enabling containers to move in and out quickly and efficiently. Technology and automation are used to increase truck throughput, and one of the many gate processes smart-Tecs’ OCR solution automates is data collection and verification. Through OCR technology, information such as container numbers, are extracted from images taken of trucks as they approach or exit terminals. This information is automatically recorded and used to expedite gate entry and exit procedures. While OCR is a key feature of gate automation, the amount of information collected is limited to what can be recognized in images, which can sometimes be obscured by weather conditions. Data is also collected is also limited to one truck at a time, as they drive through the field view of the camera.The Solution
Partnering with TagMaster North America (TMNA), the leading intelligent identification solutions provider, smart-Tecs launched a long-range RFID solution complementing their GOS and OCR systems to further automate and improve gate operations at ports and terminals.
TMNA brings more than 25 years of experience in the vehicle identification market, with a proven product line of long-range RFID and License Plate Recognition (LPR). The LR-series microwave frequency RFID readers deployed for this project are designed to outperform in the most demanding marine environments while providing unparalleled accuracy, range, and performance. The highly secure MarktTag Classic RFID tags are mounted onto the truck windshields and the RFID readers are mounted at the OCR portals and kiosks. 2.45GHz long range RFID technology offers highly defined and directional reads. This ensures immediate hands-free access and tracking without truck drivers having to interact with the system and provides critical OCR and WIM data matching to kiosk lanes. This solution provides near 100% accuracy that helps ports and terminals make data driven decisions in conjunction with the smart-Tecs GOS and OCR systems.
TagMaster’s LR-series RFID reader
The Results: Increased truck throughput
The smart-Tecs RFID solution further enables automation, increasing productivity and efficiency to optimize truck throughput. Unlike cameras used for OCR, there are no weather limitations obscuring images and multiple tags can be read at a time. As more data can be captured through RFID tags, additional gate procedures can also be automated and streamlined. Truck throughput is mission critical to the marine transportation industry. Always committed to developing innovative solutions for their customers, smart-Tecs’ GOS, OCR and RFID solutions improve gate operations to optimize truck throughput, enabling containers to move in and out of terminals quickly and safely.
