Specifications

Chapter 4

Overview of Proposed Solution

4.1 Introduction

This chapter discusses the overall design methodology and illustrates the

operation of the proposed system as a whole.

Although RFID systems have been used to track animals before [3], this

particular application is somewhat diﬀerent as it is required to be fully

autonomous and low-cost. For this reason, the system is designed from

the ground-up, using generic, oﬀ-the-shelf components as far as possible.

The solution is highly modular. Each component is a stand-alone unit

which interfaces with the other modules through communication buses. This

ensures that the custom modules can be replaced by commercial units at a

later date (should the system integrator deem it necessary), without signiﬁcant

system modiﬁcation. Figure 4.1 illustrates the proposed interconnections

between the three sections of this project:

1. A module which is able to detect and identify an animal at each gate;

2. A module which controls two of these readers, co-ordinating their readings

and interpreting the results;

3. A module w hich buﬀers this information before sending it to the user.

Naturally, a power supply and an interconnection are also required. Figure

4.2 shows the logical connections between the modules and indicates the