Challenge
CoreRFID, in partnership with RFID tags vendor HID, quickly identified the possible improvements and worked with Ocado to create a custom-built integrated RFID tag to meet its requirements in terms of reliability, cost and ease of deployment.
Ocado’s founding vision was to use technology and automation to operate the online grocer’s business sustainably, profitably and to scale-up. At the centre of Ocado’s business model are its huge automated warehouses, the largest and most evolved of their kind in the world. In its latest warehouse in Erith, London, thousands of bots whizz around on a giant grid, and can fulfil an average 50-item customer order in less than 5 minutes. The robots are orchestrated by a central control system which uses RFID technology to track their locations. The tags are mounted in close proximity to the metal grid and need to be usable in both ambient and chill environments.
“Through our long-standing partnership with Core RFID, HID has addressed significant challenges that were delaying the widescale technology adoption by Ocado in their automated warehouses.”
Dr. Tony Kington, Chief Executive Officer, Omni-ID (part of HID)
Solution
CoreRFID, HID and Ocado worked together on trialling products and assessing the performance of different tags to achieve the required level of reliability, ease to fit and cost.
Early tests with the commercially available HID Sentry 5706 – FIT 210 tag achieved a close match but the project needed a tag with a more reliable fixing and better temperature range performance. Trials involved assessing both the radio frequency characteristics of the tags and the physical aspects of the installation.
