In today's container terminals, the level of management and informatization has become an important key to restricting container transportation. In container transportation, all cargo information still relies on traditional paper manifests. The circulation, flow direction and identification technology of containers are still relatively backward, and the identification of containers is basically still in a manual or semi-manual state.

In recent years, in the identification of containers, technologies such as barcode and digital camera software identification have been used, but. Due to its poor reliability, the container itself does not carry any cargo information, and the amount of cargo information stored by barcodes and digital cameras is extremely small, which brings inconvenience to the identification and recording of container transportation information, and it is impossible to track and record the logistics information in container transportation. Electronic information flow information, so it cannot be widely used and promoted.

In order to improve the management level and informatization level of container transportation, we have researched and developed a container electronic label system with the world's leading technical level of ISM2.

1. Development status of container electronic label

Electronic tags (RFID, radio frequency identification technology) are widely used in industrial automation, commercial automation, transportation control management and many other fields. At present, there is no successful precedent for the application of container electronic tags in foreign countries. AMTECH has tried on containers. Passive electronic tags were used, but the technical requirements were not met, and the first test failed.

SAVI has achieved good trial results by using active electronic tags in the military container transportation of the US Department of Defense, but due to the high price of its products and systems and industry restrictions, it can only be used in the US military. It has been applied in civil container logistics. It shows that we have mastered RFID and its extension technology, and are in a leading position in the world.

Container electronic tags have very typical industry characteristics. First of all, the operating environment of the container electronic label system is the most complex and technically difficult in the entire electronic label application field. The technical indicators, technological indicators and functional requirements proposed are far different from other fields; The application of labels is in a huge logistics network environment, which involves the participation and cooperation of many countries, regions and departments, and involves many departments and units. How to promote the application is very critical; Third, the comprehensive application of container electronic labels will definitely have a huge impact on the logistics industry, and at the same time will greatly promote production and work efficiency, and ensure the quality of cargo transportation.

Shanghai Port's domestic trade container electronic label application demonstration is a precedent for domestic container electronic label application. All the technologies and products it uses have completely independent intellectual property rights in China, and phased results have been achieved so far.

We have also developed electronic seals, and pioneered a connection method for container electronic labels and electronic seals. Functionally, it can record the number of times of opening and closing the door, and can seamlessly connect to the container electronic label, which has reached and exceeded the international advanced level.

2. Application system for automatic identification of electronic labels for domestic trade containers

2.1 General idea

2.1.1 System Architecture

The domestic trade container electronic label automatic identification application system is constructed as a three-level system structure, which is divided into the following three subsystems from bottom to top.

1) Port Container Electronic Tag Public Motion Identification System The container electronic tag device adopts radio frequency identification technology, which is a non-contact method; it can identify and read and write multiple stationary tags and moving tags at the same time, with a large amount of stored information, long service life, and confidentiality. Good performance, the electronic label is installed on the surface of the container box.

The base station reader and antenna are installed on the running channel of the container truck, and the wireless reader is installed on the container lifting equipment. The reader can read or write the information in the container transportation to the electronic tag, and use the data interface to use Wired and wireless transmission methods are used to exchange data with the container management system to achieve automatic identification and real-time management of containers.

The electronic label automatic identification system for domestic trade containers is mainly used for the entry and exit gates of the container port area, the yard tire-type gantry crane, the quayside gantry crane or the bridge crane and other equipment, and the management personnel hand-held reading and writing occasions.

Under the current container loading and unloading process conditions in the port area, the main functions and characteristics of the domestic trade container electronic label equipment are as follows: 

① The container passes through the port area crossing (vehicle speed is 5 km/h), free from rain, snow, fog, extreme heat, and severe cold. , the influence of harsh environments such as noise, machinery, vibration, shock and large-scale metal interference;

②The active electronic tag with the working frequency band of 2.45 GHz is tested;

③Test the technical parameters of various electronic label equipment (action distance, anti-collision performance, transmission speed, working temperature, working humidity, impact resistance, lightning protection, anti-electromagnetic interference characteristics, etc.);

④ Test the container practical application of base station type, wireless type, yard sentinel technology and hand-held electronic tag reader/writer. Electronic label system includes container electronic label, container electronic label sentinel, base station reader, wireless reader, wireless bridge, hand-held PDA reader and electronic seal, etc.

2) The port area wireless communication system of the electronic label automatic identification system The container electronic label automatic identification system is applied to the port area wireless communication system, and will be arranged on equipment such as terminal entrances and exits, yard gantry cranes, shore door cranes or bridge cranes. The electronic label information read by the identification device is seamlessly connected to the back-end container information real-time exchange system.

The key technology is to study the large open space coverage mode of WLAN. In a large open space, a larger range of wireless signal coverage is required, and auxiliary facilities such as power amplifiers and antennas for wireless local area networks are used to expand the wireless network coverage area by cooperating with APs to meet the needs of large open space network coverage; The technology of seamless access to the real-time exchange system of container information from the electronic label information read or written by the equipment, and realize network roaming and resource sharing within a certain range; research to meet the limitations of the port geographical environment and the actual requirements of applications, installation and deployment requirements and implementation costs of wireless transmission communication technology.

3) Neija container intelligent management system with integrated electronic label It is tailor-made for Shanghai Port Longwu Port Co., Ltd. It integrates electronic circulation of EDI documents, automatic pre-allocation of import and export container areas, visual stowage, and graphical attribute setting of yard , management, gantry cranes, bridge cranes to confirm the final container position in real time, central monitoring of all port machinery and other container real-time operation platform software that is seamlessly connected with electronic tags.

The system integrates the advantages of the current domestic and foreign trade and domestic trade port container management software, is standardized, universal and operable, and is seamlessly connected with the electronic label, and is compatible with the original Longwu Port for nearly 8 years. There is historical data on container operations. Its completion, implementation and promotion have laid a solid foundation for accelerating the construction of China's domestic trade port management information system, enabling port data exchange, and ultimately achieving information sharing between ports, shipping, cargo and superior authorities.

In addition to the basic functional modules of the common container operation platform (such as "entry and exit", "inbound and unloading", "export loading", "yard management", "container management", "charge summary", "summary query", "statistics" In addition to "reports", etc.), it also includes some special functions, such as system seamless integration of electronic tags (RFID), parameter specification customization or import, EDI acceptance/conversion/automatic bin pre-allocation, ship double pull unification/separation design, stacking Yard attributes and specification graphics allocation, gantry crane/bridge crane container position real-time confirmation, visual stowage, central monitoring of port machinery, loading/unloading operation line assignment, gantry crane/bridge crane/inner card terminal operation platform, etc.

The main key technologies include real-time control of B/S architecture, graphical representation of yard/ship diagram, and yard allocation algorithm. At the same time, the system supports real-time reading, writing and storage of electronic tags, which is convenient for electronic flow to track logistics across the board. Moreover, it can provide an open and unified platform for personalized services (web applications, SMS applications, etc.) for different customers in the future.