Four Naval Ship Yards Deploying Forklift-Based RFID System

The U.S. Navy is preparing to leverage the forklifts that travel around its shipyards to enable an RFID- and GPS-based solution to track containers at four U.S. piers. The system will enable the Navy to collect data regarding where loaded or empty containers are located, by reading passive UHF RFID tags on containers via RFID interrogators, in conjunction with GPS, mounted on forklifts moving around the yard. With the system, provided by the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS) using technology from Venture Research, the Navy can more easily view the locations of its goods, as well as better manage the storage and movement of those products accordingly.