Issue #216 | Dec. 3, 2009 | by Bob Hamlin
A newly drafted aviation industry standard will shift RFID towards becoming a more robust information-sharing technology.
Think of a USB thumb drive integrated in an RFID tag – the possibilities are great.
Back in 2005 when the FAA approved passive RFID tags on aircraft parts, the industry wanted to push the technology beyond basic identification and tracking. Aviation interests particularly wanted tagged parts to carry their own
updateable or writeable maintenance history logs throughout their service life.
With more so-called “high memory” RFID tags coming, the time was ripe this past June for the Air Transport Association (ATA) to complete its Spec 2000 Chapter 9, "RFID On Parts" standard.
Spec 2000 has evolved into the backbone of the aviation industry's e-business processes. The “RFID On Parts” standard will allow the aviation industry to use high-memory passive RFID tags so aircraft parts can carry a complete birth record and maintenance history wherever they go.
From this very specific industry focus, the possibilities for adopting the new RFID data standard to serve other end-user applications are essentially endless. Revolutionary business processes and efficiencies will be realized when end users no longer rely on RFID-tagged information that has to be retrieved from a legacy database.
It’s important to note that work on this standard began years before high memory tags were available. Some battery-assisted, high-memory tags have appeared recently which require external power for read-write capabilities. An emerging next-generation of high-memory, passive RFID tags derive enough power from reader interrogation.
Regardless of power source, the real challenge of Spec 2000 was to create a standardized memory architecture that allows RFID tags to participate in information exchange. It requires a new data structure analogous to the needs of any removable storage media or disk operating system where one system's output can be readily accessed by another.
The Spec 2000 standard organizes RFID tag data in a read-write format that allows tag memory to be accessed across the aviation supply chain.
RFID tags as connected databases
Now it becomes possible to share information using RFID tags as a communications medium. Theoretically that information could be shared using regular tags that identify parts, which RFID has been doing all these years. But that solution relies on all parties having access to the database, where more detailed information is stored.
There are three main reasons why this is not practical, and why the ATA spent nearly five years developing the “RFID On Parts” standard.
The first has to do with the fact that centralized databases are built and maintained by organizations for their own purposes. Providing access to outsiders would require mutual standardization – a monumental effort. Standardizing information stored on individual parts, as the ATA has done, is far more manageable.
Even if sharing database access could be managed, it might not be desirable. Opening up a database to others in the supply chain, some of whom may be competitors, is not something most organizations are prepared to do.
Third is the issue of network reliability – there are times when a database connection is unavailable. Data rich RFID records attached physically to individual parts is more reliable and can be synchronized with a centralized system.
Big MRO timesavers
ATA's “RFID On Parts” draft is for the broad needs of Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO). Anytime a maintenance event occurs – removal, inspection, repair, storage, overhaul, etc. – it will be logged on the tag.
Aviation presents complex troubleshooting scenarios with multiple interacting systems. If an attached RFID history record shows that a part has been pulled for service many times but no problems were ever found, it could be an indication to look at neighboring parts or interface mechanisms.
Everyday operations can also benefit from data stored locally. For example, cabin life vests must be manually inspected before every flight over water to verify their expiration date, and the man-hour expense is significant. With a birth record on tagged life vests, walking through the cabin with an RFID interrogator locates any that are near expiration. Similarly, if an item must be serviced or inspected at certain intervals, a new expiration date can be written back to the tag after overhaul.
The scratchpad
The ATA has also included provisions for a rewritable scratchpad record. Also known as the mechanic’s comments field, it is meant to be a non-official, non-archival message field that can be used for service notes and messages. It is specified as a re-writable field, meaning only the most recent entry is available.
Some tag designs may not only be capable of keeping a history of these entries, but enable an audit trail. When market factors bear on the mechanic’s comments region, different requirements will evolve as benefits are observed. Liability and regulatory issues will certainly play a part in this evolution.
Since the ATA’s standard and the high-memory tag technology are both new, more innovative uses are sure to evolve over time. When the technology is embraced and local tag data becomes a part of everyday processes, unimaginable new capabilities will be taken for granted. Much like the whole business of flying...
Bob Hamlin is Chief Technology Officer at Tego, Inc. where he is responsible for product development and future technology directions. www.tegoinc.com
