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Enhanced Logistics Tracking
and Monitoring Through
Sensor Technology
During peace and in war, the U.S. Army loses
millions of dollars annually to spoilage, mishandling,
and theft of supplies while in transit
and in storage. In Southwest Asia, medical sets awaiting
transportation from the airfield can be exposed to temperatures
of over 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Soldiers using
those medical sets conduct visual inspections, but they
cannot be certain how long the items were exposed to
high temperatures and whether or not they remain viable.
Each year, the Army destroys a significant amount
of valuable medical materiel because of the unknown
effects of environmental conditions that it endured.
Destroying medical materiel increases medical costs
on the battlefield and affects patient care. Many of
these losses could be mitigated with automated sensor
technology that monitors and reports on the condition
of environmentally sensitive assets. The ability to
monitor the condition of assets in austere environments
makes it possible to determine if those supplies can
be safeguarded and delivered in serviceable condition
for the Soldier. With the development and use of
microelectrical mechanical systems (MEMS) sensors
integrated with radio frequency identification (RFID)
technology, Soldiers can now automatically capture and
report critical environmental and security information.
Radio Frequency In-Transit Visibility
During Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm,
thousands of containers had to be opened, inventoried,
resealed, and reinserted into the transportation system
because logisticians did not have visibility of their contents.
The volume of materiel moving through the
logistics pipeline far exceeded the Army’s ability
to track materiel, maintain accurate records, and
provide timely information to commanders. As
a result, the receiving ports and container yards
became “iron mountains” of containers filled with
undocumented supplies and equipment.
Realizing that an automated solution was
required, the Army began testing commercial
off-the-shelf active RFID tags to track supplies.
RFID tracking devices were installed throughout
the supply chain in locations like military and
commercial air and sea ports, supply depots, and
ARMY LOGISTICIAN PROFESSIONAL BULLETIN OF UNITED STATES ARMY LOGISTICS
by janina W. pLinSKy and jerry rodGerS
warehouses. The Army now has a robust worldwide
infrastructure that includes a radio frequency in-transit
visibility (RF–ITV) server that collects RFID data and
stores, processes, and distributes asset location and
“in-the-box” identification information.
Over the past few years, the RF–ITV infrastructure
has expanded rapidly to meet the needs of deploying
expeditionary forces. Since the beginning of the
Global War on Terrorism, the worldwide RF–ITV
infrastructure has quadrupled in size and currently has
4 regional servers and more than 4,000 read-and-write
sites located in 40 countries. The RF–ITV servers allow
users to track shipments, observe activity at a specific
location or site, determine the operating status of RFID
interrogators, and obtain RF–ITV metrics and statistics
over selected periods of time. Integrating active RFID
with MEMS sensor-based environmental condition
monitoring technologies adds a third dimension of asset
visibility to augment identity and location recognition.
MEMS RFID
MEMS are technologies that combine modern electronics
with mechanical systems on a small scale to
sense, control, and act on changing events. MEMS
sensors trigger proactive alerts for items that exceed
temperature, humidity, vibration, shock, and light
thresholds. RFID devices with integrated MEMS
USAMMCE personnel test the placement of sensor
tags inside medical sets at the USAMMCE in-transit
visibility demonstration.
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