About Auto-ID Labs at Cambridge

Contact Information

Cambridge Auto-ID Lab
Institute for Manufacturing
University of Cambridge
Mill Lane
Cambridge CB2 1RX
Tel: +44 (0)1223 764306

autoid-enquiries@eng.cam.ac.uk

About Cambridge Auto-ID Lab

Cambridge Auto-ID Lab is one of seven labs world wide leading research efforts in the area of Automated Identification of objects in the supply chain. The Lab has been involved in this area since 2000 when it joined the ground breaking Auto ID Center project (1999-2003) which has driven numerous industry mandates in the adoption of RFID technology.

Auto-ID Labs at Cambridge is a part of the Centre for Distributed Automation and Control, which is based within the Institute for Manufacturing at the Cambridge University Engineering Department. The lab focuses on the integration of RFID and other ID technologies into industrial environments. Specific research themes include:

Reduction in the uncertainty of RFID deployment
Methodologies for tracking and tracing objects
Management of product information networks
Quantification of the impact of RFID introduction
RFID integration with sensing and automation systems

The Cambridge Lab is involved in UK and European funded projects examining these issues in the context of the industrial supply chain. The Lab works closely with other labs based at MIT, St Gallen, Fudan, Keio, Korea and Australia.

History of Auto-ID Labs

Founded in 1999, the Auto-ID Center is a unique partnership between almost 100 global companies and seven of the world's leading research universities; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US, the University of Cambridge in the UK, the University of Adelaide in Australia, Keio University in Japan, the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland, Fudan University in China and Daejeon ICU University in Korea. Together they are creating the standards and assembling the building blocks needed to create an "Internet of things." Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a simple concept with enormous implications. Put a tag - a microchip with an antenna - on a can of Coke or a car axle, and suddenly a computer can "see" it. Put tags on every can of Coke and every car axle, and suddenly the world changes. No more inventory counts. No more lost or misdirected shipments. No more guessing how much material is in the supply chain - or how much product is on the store shelves. The Auto-ID Center is designing, building, testing and deploying a global infrastructure - a layer on top of the Internet - that will make it possible for computers to identify any object anywhere in the world instantly. This network will not just provide the means to feed reliable, accurate, real-time information into existing business applications; it will usher in a whole new era of innovation and opportunity.