The Application of RFID in Smart Cities

Smart city refers to the use of information and communication technology to sense, analyze, and integrate key information of urban operation core systems, in order to make intelligent responses to various needs including people's livelihood, environmental protection, public safety, urban services, and industrial and commercial activities. Its essence is to utilize advanced information technology to achieve intelligent management and operation of cities, thereby creating a better life for people in the city and promoting the harmonious and sustainable growth of the city. In many application scenarios of smart cities, RFID technology plays an important role and brings great convenience to our lives.

When we open our phones to check how long the bus will arrive, we use the map app to instantly generate a route to our destination, and use NFC enabled phones to take buses and subways. Here is the application analysis:

Even stolen manhole covers can be retrieved

There are occasional reports of manhole cover theft in major cities across the country. Due to the lack of effective real-time monitoring and management methods, the large number of manhole covers in cities provides opportunities for criminals. According to data from a certain media outlet, the number of manhole covers lost in a year exceeded 5000. The stolen manhole covers not only cause damage to municipal management and financial and economic losses, but also pose a great threat to the safety of vehicles and pedestrians.

By using RFID technology to connect each manhole cover, real-time data collection and management of the physical status, location status, and identity information of the manhole cover can be carried out. Through wireless sensing technology and RFID technology, the perception layer, network layer, and application layer are connected to achieve real-time reading, analysis, and transmission of data.

RFID environmental sanitation garbage bin management application

By fixing the RFID electronic tag to the garbage bin and entering relevant information such as the community where the garbage bin is located and the type of garbage bin (recyclable waste, non recyclable waste, kitchen waste, etc.) into the RFID electronic tag. Due to the unique tag code of RFID electronic tags, garbage bins labeled with tags will have a unique and fixed identity identifier, and there will be no confusion of garbage bins.

Install RFID readers on sanitation vehicles to read RFID electronic tag information and confirm the identity information of the garbage bin during garbage collection operations. The automatic weighing equipment on the sanitation truck weighs the garbage bin, obtains the weight information of the collected garbage, and transmits all the garbage collection information of the location to the control system, providing solid and reliable data and decision support for effective management of garbage collection and supervision of the collection process.

RFID technology also supports a timed reminder function. When the RFID reader fails to read the corresponding tag for a certain period of time, a warning will be issued to remind the driver and administrator to handle the garbage at the garbage station in a timely manner. Provide residents with a clean and comfortable living environment, which can reduce the breeding of mosquitoes and odors in summer. RFID technology can also optimize the recycling route of sanitation vehicles based on the location information of RFID trash cans, save fuel costs, avoid congested and cumbersome road conditions during holidays, and ensure that sanitation vehicles can reach their destination for garbage collection in a timely manner. Each garbage station has corresponding responsible person information tags, which can effectively prevent the occurrence of job evasion and collusion.

Electronic license plates: solving the urban traffic dilemma

With the continuous increase in the number of cars in China, problems such as road congestion and traffic violations are not uncommon in daily life. According to statistics disclosed by the Ministry of Public Security, as of December 2024, the total number of motor vehicles in China has reached 400 million. Faced with enormous traffic pressure, urban vehicle management issues are becoming increasingly prominent, and more and more cities are promoting the popularization of RFID technology in traffic management.

In order to solve the severe urban transportation problem, the transportation department has begun to promote the popularization of electronic license plates. RFID electronic license plates have broken through the bottleneck of the original traffic information collection technology, realizing the classification and accurate collection of vehicle traffic information, and thus achieving precise management for vehicles. The application scenarios of electronic license plates are very wide, which can be used for traffic control vehicle management, urban traffic management, environmental protection and traffic restrictions, road planning support, commercial applications related to small payments for vehicles, and so on.

RFID creates a more efficient logistics and distribution system

In recent years, with the rapid rise of online shopping lifestyle, the scale of domestic logistics has grown rapidly year after year, and the low operational efficiency of traditional logistics systems has become unsustainable. At present, the volume of express delivery services in China has exceeded the sum of developed economies such as Europe, America, and Japan, and has consistently ranked first in the world for many years.

There is a high degree of compatibility between RFID technology and logistics scenarios. In the daily management of the warehouse, the goods administrator can use RFID technology to achieve real-time tracking of goods, including the source, destination, inventory quantity and other information of goods, which can be collected in real time, greatly improving the supply efficiency of inventory and the turnover efficiency of goods. During the delivery process, the use of RFID technology to timely collect logistics, information flow, and capital flow not only reduces the error rate of goods delivery, but also greatly improves delivery efficiency.