Agent and Radio Frequency Identification Based Architecture for Supermarket Information System

Abstract

In recent years the acceptance of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology in business environments has been increasing rapidly due to its competitive business value. Adopting a suitable RFID-based information system has become increasingly important for supermarkets. However, most supermarkets still use conventional barcode-based systems to manage their information processes, which are consistently reported as one of the most unenthusiastic aspects of supermarket shopping for both customers and management. We propose an RFID agent-based architecture that adopts intelligent agent technology with an RFID based applications. RFID provides capability to uniquely identify an object within a supermarket area, while agents are able to establish a channel of communication which can be used to facilitate communications between a RFID device and supermarket back-end system. The proposed framework includes a design of intelligent mobile shopping cart equipped with both RFID and agent technologies. As a result of using the proposed RFID agent based architecture, the customer shopping experience will be improved due to ease of retrieving of the detailed information on items and quick checkout by scanning all items at once, thus eliminating queues. From supermarket management point of view the proposed architecture will reduce the cost of operation e.g., decreasing cost of goods sold which comes in the form of labor efficiency in areas of checkout operation, inventory management and alerting the supermarket management when a certain product is running out of stock and needs to be restocked.