2006-12--RFID-Hardware--Reid-Phillips

University of Arkansas – CSCE Department RFID Agent Middleware – Final Report – Fall 2006 RFID Hardware Reid Phillips Abstract The focus of this project has been primarily centered on working with the agent wrappers for the RFID hardware devices From testing and debugging to development a wide range of issues were partially addressed in this project The hardware wrappers contained within the RFID code are essential to the project as a whole These wrappers provide the interface by which the overall architecture can communicate with devices in the outside world This functionality gives a purpose and thus overall direction to the entire system and therefore its correctness is essential Problem The problem to be addressed is twofold: first it is necessary to ensure that the existing code base remains up-to-date and that any discovered bugs be fixed, second it is important to develop new code to support new hardware devices The focus of this project was to address these two problems These two issues are important for the project especially as it is going open source soon The first issue ensures that the established code base is in fact useful and relatively error proof The second issue improves the overall quality of the project by expanding its capabilities These features are important to any package being released whether it is open source or not The RFID package would not be taken as seriously until these features were addressed If the released software was full of bugs it would be seen as counterproductive to expand its functionality until a stable version was reached Also, if the software provided almost no functionality then again it may not be seen as worthwhile to build off the existing architecture Objective The objective of this project is to both test and debug existing code while also expanding the code base by writing new agent wrappers Design Page – RFID Hardware The existing architecture was used The changes made involved adjustments to individual lines of code within the code base Background The problem is fairly straightforward For most of the accomplished work, the majority of the code already existed Only minor changes were identified Though the amount of code written was small the necessary research required took more work This required access to the API’s of both the Symbol and Impinj readers and the Zebra printer Until this project I had not actually worked with the readers therefore requiring slightly more research than the printer which was relatively fresh in mind from previous work done Beyond previous work done on the Zebra printer no background existed for this project Related Work For communicating directly with the devices, generally related work consists of proprietary solutions which typically entail a web page interface Requirements Zebra printer ZPL definition document Alien EULA Impinj contact (Mike Grobler) mike.grobler@impinj.com Impinj, Inc 5000 Birch Street, Suite 7100 Newport Beach, CA 92660 Tel: (949)553-0650x1056 Fax: (949)553-0615 Symbol reader (RFID lab) Symbol reader API Risks No risks were considered High Level Design No changes were made to the supporting architecture, only code revisions were accomplished Tasks (as executed) Test the Zebra printer at the RFID lab … RFID Hardware Obtain the Alien EULA … Understand the Impinj architecture … Discuss code details with Impinj contact … Adjust Symbol reader agent wrapper … Document … Risks N/A Detailed Design The changes made to AR400ReaderAgent.java include altering the command issued to the reader Originally the “queryTags” command was issued with associated parameters; now the “queryEvents” command is issued This in turn changed the response sent back from the reader to the agent and subsequently involved making slight adjustments to the parse method that interprets the incoming message Implementation Implementation involved adjusting the code within the existing code base Test Plan Tests will be run in the RFID lab as soon as is convenient to those working there Tests will involve using the agent to make correct delta reads rather than system snapshots Results and Analysis No problems were found using the Zebra printer agent Several tags were printed correctly while at the RFID lab The agent performed as specified in the existing TagCentric documentation Through the assistance of David Cromhout and Nick Jones at the RFID lab the Alien EULA was obtained to ensure that distribution of some of their resources was possible Some time was spent with Mike Grobler understanding the Impinj API and how to work with their libraries Nothing ever came of this as the issue of using their products is still being negotiated Another associated issue is the understanding of JNI or some comparative technology to enable Java to talk to a dll or so Also the API for the handheld Symbol reader was never obtained Sean Bruce, through his connections at the lab, attempted to obtain this document but was ultimately unsuccessful Finally the Symbol reader agent, AR400ReaderAgent.java, was changed to allow for delta reads rather than complete system snapshots This code is finished but the testing is yet to be performed Conclusions RFID Hardware Tests were run on the Zebra printer in the RFID lab indicating correct performance The Alien EULA was obtained for consideration concerning the move to open source Only a general understanding of the Impinj architecture was gleaned as most of the time spent dealing with them was spent through lawyers Finally the Symbol reader agent has been edited to allow for delta reads rather than complete system snapshots I think an important organizational feature is to make sure all the documentation is available before assigning a project A lot of time was spent doing nothing while waiting for API’s and other similar documents Though it gave me more time to work on other projects I did not accomplish as much for the RFID class Future Work Once access is granted to the Impinj resources an agent should be developed for it This will require a different approach than exists in the AR400ReaderAgent.java This reader responds to http communication which is vastly different than what is required for the Impinj reader Also development of agents to support handheld / mobile readers is an issue yet to be addressed Specifically the Symbol handheld reader should not be too different from the existing AR400ReaderAgent.java Deliverables • Code – Changes were made to AR400ReaderAgent.java file that support delta reads • Final Report – This document Key Personnel Student name – Phillips graduate Computer Science major in the Computer Science and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Arkansas He has completed two semesters of this class working with both Impinj and Symbol readers and a Zebra printer He was responsible for the changes described in this paper