A versatile, automated, cost-effective testing platform for hands-on UHF RFID measurements

In this paper, we present cost-effective techniques to assess UHF RFID performance for real world applications. This includes a positioner, made from roof battens and stepper motors, which can position a tag in 3-D space. It can be used for a variety of measurements, e.g., tag RSSI or phase patterns or influence of distance to materials and other tags. We also present a 1-D positioner from similar materials to lift a reader antenna to show reflections from ground and perform limited motion measurements. For the measurements themselves, we use a commercial off-the-shelf R420 Impinj reader, which we control via LLRP commands, implemented in Python. To verify the communication link between reader and tag, we use a low-cost SDR based on an RTL2832U chip. We also built clamps and adapters from hardware store materials to connect a tag to RF equipment to read the communication and test external antennas. For bulk detection performance testing, we built a frame with RF neutral layers with attached tags.