RFID Based Security System

Interactive Product Analysis and Design

Forward Engineering Project Report

• Devindan J.S - EN16519596

Lecturer in Charge – Dr Chanthuranga Weeraddana

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING
SRI LANKA INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

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Abstract

The main purpose of this thesis is to build an electronic security system which is cheaper than
the systems available to be bought so this system can be used in low priority instance to provide
better security with a low cost. The proposed system is based on RFID technology since it is
more reliable and cheap compared to the other identification technologies. The main objective of
the system is to reduce hassle with keys in normal locks available and to provide better security.
The system will have its own microcontroller since all the information will be processed in the
system itself. To assist this study several academic researches and projects related to automated
attendance system are reviewed. The created system is analyzed later using valid and invalid data
while monitoring it performance.

Keywords: RFID, Arduino board, RFID tags, Communication, RFID reader

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CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................ 4
2. LITERATURE REVIEW ..................................................................................................................... 5
2.1. Tag ................................................................................................................................................ 5
2.2. RFID Reader ................................................................................................................................. 6
2.3. Signaling ....................................................................................................................................... 6
3. METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................................... 7
3.1. BLOCK DIAGRAM ..................................................................................................................... 7
3.2. COMPONENETS USED.............................................................................................................. 8
3.2.1. RFID Module ....................................................................................................................... 8
3.2.2. Arduino MEGA ................................................................................................................... 9
3.2.3. 4 x 4 keypad ....................................................................................................................... 10
3.2.4. 16 x 2 LCD screen ............................................................................................................. 11
3.2.5. Servo motor ....................................................................................................................... 13
3.3. FLOW CHART ........................................................................................................................... 14
4. DISCUSSION ..................................................................................................................................... 15
4.1. RFID ALTERNATIVES............................................................................................................. 15
4.2. COST .......................................................................................................................................... 16
.................................................................................................................................................................... 16
5. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................... 17
6. REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................... 18

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1. INTRODUCTION

Security is a top priority issue when it comes to valuable things. The typical security measure all
over the world is a lock and key. But nowadays the world is so advanced that it has so many secure
methods to prevent theft and forgery. These advanced methods include scanners such as
fingerprint, voice detection and retinal. These methods might be eligible to be used for big
organizations or in government security zones for securing data that is too valuable to risk. But to
areas such as an educational institute does not need such advanced methods. The main reasons for
this is because there isn’t much to protect and it is too expensive to implement. Therefore a system
that is not too advanced nor too simple (padlock and key) is needed for such areas. And therefore
the RFID based security system was suggested and slowly believed to be the solution for this type
of situations.

RFID systems use electromagnetic fields to track tags. The RFID tags contain an electronically
stored number, the number of digits that can be stored in one tag may change from card to card
depending on it storage capacity. These tags are of two types, Active and passive. The main
difference between these two types is the power source, the passive tag collects energy from the
interrogating radio waves of the RFID reader to power itself and the active tags has an internal
power source embedded in them, usually a battery. The active tag has a larger range than the
passive tag. The advantage that a RFID system holds over a barcode is that it doesn’t have to be
read at line of sight. This one known method of Automatic identification and data capture (AIDC).

This project is a RFID based security system that uses passive tags as authorization/access cards.
The tags that possess authorization is linked to a database which is customizable. This feature can
be useful in a scenario where new tags are introduced or removed from the system. For all this to
become possible the tags that are given authorization should be swiped once, in order to access the
electronic number embedded in it. So then this number can be marked as an authorized entry. In
order for the number on the tag to be read by the reader, the tag, the antenna and the reader should
work symbiotically.

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2. LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1. Tag

There are two main types of RFID tags. They are Active RFID tag and Passive RFID tag. Active
tag has internal power source which includes a battery and continuously supply the power. But,
for Passive RFID tag there is no battery included, its power is induced from the reader via RF
which has the power availability only within field of reader.

And Active RFID tag is given a very low signal strength from reader to tag and high signal strength
from tag to reader. But, Passive RFID tag needs a very high signal strength from reader to tag and
gives out a very low signal strength from tag to reader. For long range communication, Active
RFID tags are used and for short range communication Passive RFID tags are used. Active RFIDs
sensor has the ability to continuously monitor and record sensor input but, Passive RFIDs sensor
has the ability to read and transfer sensor values only when tag receives RF signal from reader.
The tags can be further categorized by their frequency range. Which are Low Frequency (LF),
High Frequency (HF) and Ultra High Frequency (UHF).

Low frequency RFID system will operate at 125 KHz. It provides short read range of about 10cm
and it has slower read speed than the higher frequencies but it is very sensitive to radio wave
interference. As we researched SLIIT ID is also a low frequency tag.

High Frequency RFID system will operate at 13.56 MHz with read ranges between 10cm and 1m.
It has a moderate sensitivity to interface.

And Ultra High frequency RFID system will operate at 860 to 960 MHz band.

We are focusing mainly on passive tags because that is what we are using on our project.

Passive RFID tags contains an antenna and an integrated circuit. These are used to transmit data
to RFID reader. Here an antenna is used to transmit the radio waves.

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 2.2. RFID Reader

As it is clarified earlier the tags are of two types active and passive, and to read this 2 types of tags
there are different types of tag readers. According to [1] they are passive reader active tag
(PRAT) and this system has a passive reader that can read active tags only, Active reader passive
tag (ARPT) and this system has an active reader that can only read passive tags, Active reader
active tag (ARAT) and this system uses an active reader and active tags. ARAT systems has many
variations which can be further categorized into sub systems.

2.3. Signaling

The RFID reader should have a way of communicating wirelessly to the tag to obtain data. Active
tags uses transmitters and receivers and doesn’t have to be waiting for the interrogating signal of
the reader.[2] But a passive tag uses a completely different approach, as the tag becomes close
enough to the reader’s magnetic field the interrogating signal modulates the electrical load of the
tag. It varies the tag’s electrical load from high to low and low to high. This is done so that the
reader can detect the change in the electrical load of the tag.

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3. METHODOLOGY

To start things off existing RFID systems were referred and a mild idea about how this type of
systems work was studied. With this knowledge we came up with a few ideas and the structure of
our project was designed. The block diagram below will fill you up with the understanding of how
the flow of the device works.

3.1. BLOCK DIAGRAM

RFID reader

Arduino Mega
LCD

Keypad

Servo motor

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Components used as per the block diagram, reasoning of choices and the specification of them
are discussed below.
After the block diagram was decided, a research was done to check what modules were available
in the country, cost of each module, and what modules can be used without having much trouble
to implement. After filtering out many modules a final list of components to be bought was listed.

The listed modules and their specifications will be discussed next.

3.2. COMPONENETS USED

3.2.1. RFID Module

RFID module used in this project is RC522. As mention by [5] the operating frequency of the
RFID module is high frequency (13.56MHz). The operating voltage of the RFID module is 3.3V.
The Amperage required by the RFID Module is between 13-26mA. It has maximum Data transfer
rate of 10Mbit/s. And read range of the RFID module is 3cm. The RFID module will power up the
IC and detect the radio waves. [3]Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) is the communication link
between the Arduino and the RFID module. The working temperature and storage temperature are
respectively -20 - 80 degrees Celsius and -45 – 80 degrees Celsius.

The pin configuration is available in the table below.

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 PINS Definition
1-SDA Stereo Dimensional Array
2-SCK Serial clock
3-MOSI Master out slave in
4-MISO Master in slave out
5-IRQ Interrupt request
6-GND Ground
7-RST Reset
8-3.3V Voltage in

3.2.2. Arduino MEGA

There are many types of Arduino boards. Commonly used Arduino boards are Arduino UNO and
Arduino Mega and for our project we used Arduino Mega. The operating voltage of the Arduino
board is 5V. It has 54 Digital I/O pins with 15 PWM outputs and 16 analog pins. Each of the 54
digital pins on the Mega can be used as an input or output, using pinMode(),digitalWrite(),and
digitalRead() functions. The DC current per I/O pin of the Arduino is 40mA. And it has 128 KB
of (which 4 KB is used by the bootloader), Flash memory for storing code. The clock speed is
around 16 MHz.

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 3.2.3. 4 x 4 keypad

We used 4x4 matrix keypad to our project. It means 4 rows and 4 columns. [4]The keypad in this
project is for an additional security application or feature. It has 8 pins, and all of them go into the
digital pins of the arduino. In order for the microcontroller to determine which button is pressed,
it is first necessary to pull each of the four columns is either low or high one at a time, then scans
the states of the four rows. This means that either the column pins or the row pins are kept as the
reference point and the other pins is varied at a high rate. Depending on the status of the state
change in the pins, the microcontroller may indicate which button is pressed.

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The above diagram shows a graphical image of the internal circuitry of the 4 x 4 keypad. So this
diagram shows that the keypad is a very simple circuit with many push buttons and all its
complexity is handled by the micro controller itself.

3.2.4. 16 x 2 LCD screen

Its extended form is Liquid Crystal display. We used 16x2 LCD display to our project. It means
we can display the 32 characters in LCD display. These modules are preferred over seven
segments and other multi segment LEDs, because of how easy it is to use. It has 16 pins. [6]The
pin diagram of the LCD display given below.

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Pin Purpose
1-VSS Ground
2-VDD Voltage in
3-VEE Contrast control
4-RS Register Select
5-RW Read/ write
6-E Enable
7-D0 Data
8-D1 Data
9-D2 Data
10-D3 Data
11-D4 Data
12-D5 Data
13-D6 Data
14-D7 Data
15-LEDA LED(+)
16-LEDK LED(-)

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 3.2.5. Servo motor

We used the MG996R servo motor as our locking mechanism. Servo motors usually have 3 wires,
Ground, power (around 5V) and PWM. Their colors are respectively Brown/Black, Red and
Yellow/White. These wires go into the arduino and is then ready to be coded. The maximum angle
of the servo motor’s rotation is approximately 180 degrees.

PINS Definition
1-VDD Voltage in
2-VSS Ground
3-PWM Control signal

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3.3. FLOW CHART

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This flowchart shows the flow of how the system works. The summary of it would be, a person is
given a try to swipe the RFID tag and if the tag is accepted the system will ask the personal to
enter the key code if the card was not accepted the system will return to the beginning.

And now if the tag is valid and the person enters the correct key code the locking mechanism will
open but if his key code is incorrect the personal will be asked to enter it again. 3 chances are given
to enter correct key code until the system takes you back to where the RFID tag should be swiped.

4. DISCUSSION

4.1. RFID ALTERNATIVES

There are many similar systems that uses technology similar to RFID. This include barcode,
ultrasound, Infrared and video.

These are very good methods of automatic identification and data capture and has proven to
become very useful tools to help develop systems such as security and for item identification
purposes. But RFID technology has a few advantages over the other mentioned methods. The table
below displays the advantages of RFID over other technologies.

Method Disadvantage

Barcode  Needs line of sight.

Ultra sound  Needs more sensors and may not be

Infrared  Needs line of sight.

Video  Two similar items cannot be

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Since we came to an understanding that there is a slight possibility that the RFID tag information
could be replicated and may be used to do malicious activities that can be illegal. Since a new
problem was detected a solution was necessary as soon as possible and this has led us to introduce
a secondary entry method, and this is where the keypad comes in. Now the all the personals should
swipe the RFID tag and type a secret passcode/password using the keypad to gain access and get
the lock opened.

Swipe RFID  Enter passcode  Access granted!

4.2. COST

Component Price
Servo motor Rs.600
Arduino Mega Rs.1700
RFID module Rs.800
LCD Rs.300
Keypad Rs.200
Others Rs.300
TOTAL Rs.3900

Cost of project

RFID module Arduino Mega Servo motor LCD Keypad

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5. CONCLUSION

The concept of automatic identification and data capture has been understood. This project has
lead our team to a better understanding of how the components used in this project works,
especially the RFID reader and the tag. Our device has been tested several number of times for
errors and through despite and failure the team effort and hard work has led to the development of
a flawless device .This elegant piece of technology is believed to replace similar technologies like
barcode. The development of standards has solved privacy issues that has been a threat all along
for the RFID systems. Security systems are not the limit of Radio frequency systems, many other
systems such as health safety systems, shopping path analysis, access control systems, attendance
marking systems and many other innovative ideas are being implemented using this technology.
Since the world is shifting towards technology such as this, we can strongly say that RFID based
systems are going to replace many things such as national ID cards, Passports and even driver’s
license.

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6. REFERENCES

[1]C. Haley, L. Jacobsen and S. Robkin, Radio frequency identification handbook for librarians.
Westport, Conn.: Libraries Unlimited, 2007, pp. 8-9.

[2]R. Want, PERVASIVE computing. IEEE, 2006.

[3]K. Finkenzeller, RFID handbook. Chichester, England: Wiley, 2003.

[4]"4x4 Matrix Membrane Keypad", www.parallax.com, 2017. [Online]. Available:

[5]RFID Quick Start Guide: Arduino. Addicore, 2013.

[6]"How to Use an LCD Display - Arduino Tutorial", Instructables.com, 2017. [Online].Available:

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