A RF Identification System for the Improvement of Metrological Activities

In this work the authors describe the realization of a "radio-frequency identification system" for the improvement of the metrological activities of a measuring laboratory. Some radio- frequency modules, called by the authors RF smart points ("radio-frequency smart points"), have been designed to store into their memories all data which are necessary for the instruments tracking (the type of instruments, their identification numbers or serial numbers, the manufacturer, the date when they have been admitted to the installed base of the laboratory, their working state, the elapsed time from the last calibration procedure). The insertion of the data and the inquiry of the instruments are executed by the technical staff of the laboratory through a PDA (personal digital assistant) or a PC, which manage the radio-frequency communication by using the RS 232 interface for sending messages to a RF transceiver. The executable software for managing the communication between the smart points and the "PDA/PC-controllers" is realized in LabVIEW graphical programming environment.