Free Traceability Management Using RFID and Topic Maps

Presentamos en la 4th European Conference on Information Management and Evaluation (Lisboa, Septiembre 2010) el trabajo Garrido, P., Naranjo, F, Tramullas, J. et alii, «Free Traceability Management using RFID and Topic Maps.» Este trabajo está relacionado con otro anterior en el que abordábamos el uso de etiquetado semántico para la gestión de información, y por el que recibimos un premio en un congreso. Esta conferencia está considerada como «Core C», dentro de los listados de factor de impacto.

Abstract: The Governing Board of the Protected Designation of Origin “Ham from Teruel” is involved in the development of a system that guarantees the traceability of the pig’s legs. This initiative is innovative since there is no other Governing Board which has such a system to respond to unforeseen circumstances occurred at the slaughterhouse unit. To accomplish the requirements, three different strategies have been followed: (i) RadioFrequency Identification (RFID) technology, which uses a wireless link to transfer data in a fast and easy way – just placing the tag within the communication range of the reader – between read/write access points strategically placed in the slaughter chain and tags attached to every pig’s leg, (ii) the security of the traceability system, that provides evidence that all the controls in a production process have been activated. This enables the client to quickly verify that all the products have correctly passed through the production cycle with the guarantee of trust provided under the responsibility of the signer, and (iii) a free documentary management system (DMS), which is necessary to correctly manage the information collected during the slaughtering process. This paper is focused on the third strategy. To develop the documentary management system, we use the ISO 13250 which defines the Topic Maps paradigm, and its XTM specification. The combination of both technologies (RFID and XTM) in the traceability system offers several advantages to manage the online information in real-time.

Keywords: Traceability, RFID, Topic Maps, Document Management System