Utilizing Tracking Data in RFID-Equipped Warehouses

The utilization of RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification) related technologies became very common in the last few years. The effected main areas are highway surveillance systems, access cards, transport payments, RFID passports and product tracking systems. Tagged products can be tracked in an appropriately equipped warehouse with the help of the installed RFID readers. By deploying a grid of RFID readers the movement of the customers can be monitored because of a tag attached to the shopping cart or the products stored in it. In this paper, assuming such an environment, it has been examined how relevant information can be retrieved with the help of data mining methods from the collected, RFID-related tracking data. The frequent sequences have been extracted, revealing the most visited spots and walks across the warehouse and the typical products selected along the way. This warehouse technology is not widespread yet, hence the effeciency of the algorithm could only be examined by conducting measurements on synthetic tracking data generated by a simulation environment.