EMP Solutions Newsletter

Challenge: Tracking and maintaining 1.2 million trash carts that are dispersed throughout the streets of a major metropolitan area.

Solution: RFID tags and barcodes embedded in each trash cart

Story: One of EMP Tech Group’s latest major projects was with Rehrig Pacific’s logistic division Rehrig Penn Logistics in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin. The City of Toronto in Ontario, Canada selected Rehrig Penn to manufacture new rollout trash carts with RFID tags embedded in the handles of the carts. The City of Toronto equipped all of their city’s trash trucks with RFID readers in order to read each cart as it is emptied into their trash trucks. This mobile asset management system is also used to dispatch technicians for repairs to the carts. EMP's Tech Group designed, built and installed fixtures at the many production facilities where the carts are produced for reading the carts’ RFID tags and Thermocode barcodes.

The EMP Tech Group system utilizes a Logic Controls LC8200 fanless Industrial PC as the heart of the system. An ELO 12” touch screen acts as the user interface. An Alien Technology ALR9800 fixed-station RFID reader reads the installed RFID tags and a Motorola MS2207 fixed-mount barcode scanner reads the serialized barcodes.

After the RFID tag and barcode are read, the data is transmitted to the host data base. This is accomplished by a custom program written by EMP Tech Group. The program is written in VB.NET and the database is SQL Server. Motorola’s MC9090 RFID data collection terminals are used as back up units for the fixed devices and will also be used in future phases.

Rehrig’s Logistics Group is also responsible for distributing and maintaining the newly molded carts to the households. EMP Tech Group and Rehrig worked with Charlotte, NC-based IT solution provider, Logical Advantage on this portion of the project. The Motorola MC9090K was selected as the data collection device for both distributing and maintaining the carts.

For more information about this application, please contact EMP Technical Group at 317-867-7600.

	Motorola MS2207 used to read thermal code on cart.
	Alien ALR9800 used to read RFID tag in the handle of the cart.
	Logic Controls LC8200 fanless industrial PC used to control the system.
	Motorola MC9090RFID gun used as portable backup for the system.
	Motorola MC9090X used for cart rollout and for cart maintenance.