In Sheremetyevo the pilot project of a control system of baggage is complete

On February 25, 2016 the company operator of the Sheremetyevo airport announced tests of a RFID system of tracking of baggage.

Project Tasks

For airlines loss of baggage attracts considerable expenses. If its location does not manage to be set, the airline is obliged to pay compensation to its owner and if several airlines are involved in run with several changes, each of them should pay a part of cost of baggage proceeding from distance on which it transported this passenger and his baggage. This rule is unfair to airlines which are not guilty of loss, especially if a considerable part of a way falls to their share.

The Aeroflot airline and four airports under observation of International association of operators of air transport (IATA), planned a pilot project of system implementation for tracking of baggage using RFID technology in Europe for fulfillment of requirements of Resolution 753 IATA.^[1]

Sheremetyevo, zone of issue of baggage, (2014)

This resolution provides observance by airlines of requirements for exact monitoring of receipt and delivery of each unit of baggage, and should be completely executed by June, 2018. The solution under the name Hand-to-Hand RFID Baggage Tracking System (HHRBTS), is established by Longest Chance system integrator.

The pilot project was calculated for six weeks. It began in September, 2015 and is complete at the end of October, 2015.

Project Progress

Processing of baggage is often compared to work of factory, but you sometime heard about factory at which are not checked and the arriving and sent products are not registered? Just the same situation exists also when tracking baggage. The resolution on tracking of baggage sets the minimum requirements to those data on baggage which airlines should register for the purpose of prevention of errors at its service. Andrew Price, head of department of land service of the IATA airports

Eldar Vagapov, technical director of Longest Chance

Representatives of Longest Chance provided to IATA the idea of tracking of baggage from its check at one airport and before arrival in another. The system developed by Longest Chance provides delivery to the passenger of the baggage and obtaining by airline information on possible discrepancies throughout all process of transportation of baggage. We are glad to cooperate with Longest Chance and to render them assistance in implementation of this pilot project". In this case specialists of IATA acted as consultants when installing a system. Andrew Price

Within a pilot project the passengers going to three above-stated destination points are registered at the Sheremetyevo airport and their registered baggage is equipped with luggage labels in the same way, as well as the normal labels which are not containing RFID tags. According to Eldar Vagapov, labels have the built-in RFID tag and also the unique identification number which coordinates in a software package with airport of destination.

The baggage unit equipped with a RFID tag moves on a labyrinth of pipelines, having passed four points of scanning, taking into account results of the first and the subsequent scannings. In each point the RFID tag is read out, the software package compares a destination point of this unit of baggage to its location on the pipeline at a given time to provide its direction along the correct route. If in any point the baggage goes to the wrong pipeline, or she acts from the pipeline and disappears from a type, the software package defines that there was a problem, and brings to the display the adequate notice for managers on service of baggage of this airport. They have a fragmented information on the events with each unit of baggage. The technology is intended for prevention of loading of a suitcase on the cart sent not to that airport.

At each airport of destination in places of loading of baggage the readers of Speedway Revolution equipped with two MTI Wireless Edge antennas – one reader for baggage of the standard size, and another for large units of baggage as such baggage goes on the separate pipeline were installed on the luggage pipeline. After unloading of baggage from the airplane it goes to the beginning of the pipeline where the RFID reader establishes that the baggage is received at airport of destination. The software package collects and stores information confirming baggage claim in a destination point. Thus, these data can be used in case of claims at loss of baggage to define where it was seen last time.

Project Results

Longest Chance completed a pilot project of the cloud RFID solution in Sheremetyevo.

Longest Chance supplied for the project the equipment and also the software Erfid allowing customers (airline and the airports) to define arrival time of baggage on a rack of airline before a departure, ways of transportation of baggage to airplanes and possible errors, arrival time to a destination point.

The used technology helps:

• reduce the probability of the direction of baggage to the wrong address,
• accelerate identification of baggage at its loading it on run
• increase service quality of passengers by reduction of quantity of errors.

A RFID system is installed in terminal E of the Sheremetyevo airport. It consisted of 16 points of scanning equipped with the reader Impinj Speedway Revolution with two MTI Wireless Edge antennas. Readers are set in each point where on a pipeline system the baggage is distributed in several directions. In each point of the pipeline a system will recognize whether there was no error in the direction of baggage. In this solution also 16 RFID printers installed at the Sheremetyevo airport earlier are used, but still were not operated. In the project about 300 thousand UHF of tags of Avery Dennison were used.

We live during an era of information technologies when information is the main resource. Tracking of baggage in the territory of the airport (in the terminal, in places of baggage claim) provides faultless implementation of processing of baggage. If this information is lost, can be the minimum effects increases in search time of the lost baggage unit. The maximum risk – baggage can be not submerged aboard the plane that will entail financial losses as it is necessary to compensate to the passenger its cost for the company. Pavel Markovic, head of service of baggage of the Russian airline "Aeroflot"

Eldar Vagapov

Eldar Vagapov

During the project problems which the management of Longest Chance and its engineers did not expect were shown.

Eldar Vagapov

Installation of a system in the Sheremetyevo airport was performed in five days. Its installation in the airports of Prague, Bologna and Tallinn took one-two days. Before installation of a system representatives of Longest Chance were engaged in obtaining allowing documents from all concerned parties. Six months we spent for negotiations, the adoption of contracts and preparatory work, for example, integration with ARINC (a software package for service of baggage). Problem solving, connected with a human factor, takes away many efforts and means. From the technical point of view our system differs in universality and simplicity of installation. Sergey Tsibouk, CEO of Longest Chance

The Moscow airport is interested in implementation of technology on a permanent basis, but also wants that all parties involved in service of baggage participated in this process. Our airport is ready to start use of RFID technology, but, unfortunately, it was not widely adopted yet. We hope that airlines will support need of transition from the existing systems to systems on the basis of RFID technology first of all for the purpose of quality improvement of service of passengers and cost reduction in the future. Vladimir Gavrilov, head of service of service of baggage of the Sheremetyevo airport

I had very positive impression about this technology from its installation. We had the some difficulties at start of a system connected with precepts of law - need of obtaining allowing documents from numerous participants and the organizations for installation of this technological solution. However, equipment installation was very simple and fast. Marco Rossetto, the head of department of the automated technologies and the equipment of the airport of Bologna