Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) sensors, integrating the features of Wireless Information and Power Transfer (WIPT), object identification and energy efficient sensing capabilities, have been considered a new paradigm of sensing and communication for the futuristic information systems. RFID sensor tags featuring contactless sensing, wireless information transfer, wireless powered, light weight, non-line-of-sight transmission, flexible and pasteable are a critical enabling technology for future Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications, such as manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, agriculture and food. They have attracted numerous research efforts due to their innovative potential in the various application fields. However, there has been a gap between the in-lab investigations and the practical IoT application scenarios, which has motivated this survey of this research to identify the promising enabling techniques and the underlying challenges. This study aims to provide an exhaustive review on the state-of-art RFID sensor technologies from the system implementation perspective by focusing on the fundamental RF energy harvesting theories, the recent technical progresses and commercial solutions, innovative applications and some RFID sensor based IoT solutions, identify the underlying technological challenges at the time being, and give the future research trends and promising application fields in the rich sensing applications of the forthcoming IoT era.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) has become a key enabler for the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). By taking advantage of the backscattered radio waves, the identity and position of RFID-labeled objects can be obtained simultaneously. Very many efforts have been devoted to the investigations of RFID positioning, but practical applications are rarely seen in industrial sectors. Motived by the potentiality of RFID positioning and the gap between research and practice, this investigation aims to provide an in-depth survey of the methods and the latest technical progress in RFID positioning to identify the underlying challenges. The main contributions include (1) A theoretical model of radio frequency backscatter coupling-based positioning and an in-depth analysis of the influencing parameters. (2) A new classification of RFID positioning techniques with a discussion of the latest progress. (3) A summary of the potential applications and the underlying challenges facing the state-of-the-art, including the simultaneous attitude and position acquisition and the flexible integration with practical applications. (4) The prospects of emerging technologies such as the integration of identification-sensing-positioning, RFID positioning-powered robotics operations, and machine learning/deep learning algorithms are discussed. This investigation gives a comprehensive perspective on RFID positioning, which provides a reference for related research and practices.

An important step of phase calculation-based fringe projection systems is 3D calibration, which builds up the relationship between an absolute phase map and 3D shape data. The existing 3D calibration methods are complicated and hard to implement in practical environments due to the requirement of a precise translating stage or gauge block. This paper presents a 3D calibration method which uses a white plate with discrete markers on the surface. Placing the plate at several random positions can determine the relationship of absolute phase and depth, as well as pixel position and X, Y coordinates. Experimental results and performance evaluations show that the proposed calibration method can easily build up the relationship between absolute phase map and 3D shape data in a simple, flexible and automatic way.

The fast development in the fields of integrated circuits, photovoltaics, the automobile industry, advanced manufacturing, and astronomy have led to the importance and necessity of quickly and accurately obtaining three-dimensional (3D) shape data of specular surfaces for quality control and function evaluation. Owing to the advantages of a large dynamic range, non-contact operation, full-field and fast acquisition, high accuracy, and automatic data processing, phase-measuring deflectometry (PMD, also called fringe reflection profilometry) has been widely studied and applied in many fields. Phase information coded in the reflected fringe patterns relates to the local slope and height of the measured specular objects. The 3D shape is obtained by integrating the local gradient data or directly calculating the depth data from the phase information. We present a review of the relevant techniques regarding classical PMD. The improved PMD technique is then used to measure specular objects having discontinuous and/or isolated surfaces. Some influential factors on the measured results are presented. The challenges and future research directions are discussed to further advance PMD techniques. Finally, the application fields of PMD are briefly introduced.

Abstarct: With the advent of intelligent manufacturing, phase measuring deflectometry (PMD) has been widely studied for the measurement of the three-dimensional (3D) shape of specular objects. However, existing PMDs cannot measure objects having discontinuous specular surfaces. This paper presents a new direct PMD (DPMD) method that measures the full-field 3D shape of complicated specular objects. A mathematical model is derived to directly relate an absolute phase map to depth data, instead of the gradient. Two relevant parameters are calibrated using a machine vision-based method. On the basis of the derived model, a full-field 3D measuring system was developed. The accuracy of the system was evaluated using a mirror with known positions along an accurate translating stage. The 3D shape of a monolithic multi-mirror array having multiple specular surfaces was measured. Experimental results show that the proposed DPMD method can obtain the full-field 3D shape of specular objects having isolated and/or discontinuous surfaces accurately and effectively.

Fringe projection profilometry plays an important role for quality control in production line. However, it is facing challenges in the measurement of objects with intricate structures and high dynamic range that involved in precision manufacturing and semiconductor packaging. In this paper, a multi-view fringe projection profilometry system, which deploys a vertical telecentric projector and four oblique tilt-shift cameras, is presented to address the “blind spots” caused by shadowing, occlusion and local specular reflection. A flexible and accurate system calibration method is proposed, in which the corrected pinhole imaging model is used to calibrate the telecentric projection, and the unified calibration is performed by bundle adjustment. Experimental results show that the 3D repeated measurement error and standard deviation are no more than 10 μm within a measurable volume of 70 × 40 × 20 mm³. Furthermore, a group of experiments prove that the developed system can achieve complete and accurate 3D measurement for high dynamic range surfaces with complex structures.