Students from HKPU (Hong Kong Polytechnic University), CityU (City University of Hong Kong) and UM (University of Macau) participated in the projects on the applications of RFID technology for different industries. Four HKPU students worked on the “RFID for Pharmaceutical Packaging Line” Project. They combined Siemens Moby RFID with Siemens Machine Vision to create a system to monitor the pharmaceutical packaging process and ensure its being up to standard. The second team was a group of 4 CityU students. In their project “Multi-Purpose Autonomous Robust Carrier for Hospital”, RFID was applied in developing an intelligent mobile vehicle which can communicate with central control centre and navigate through the hospital building autonomously to move trolleys and carry heavy goods while avoid obstacles. The third project team consisted of 5 UM students whose project focused on “RFID for Casino Application”. The students studied and investigated how RFID can be used to combat fraud and strengthen customer relations management. The application of RFID technology is a hot topic in the industry and it is expected to be more and more popular in Hong Kong.
The project aimed at introducing the concept of “Automated Car Park” to fit in Hong Kong’s real life environment of shortage in parking space. In a period of six months, a student team consisting of 6 HKPU (Hong Kong Polytechnic University) students and 4 IVE (Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education – Tsing Yi) students tried to turn the "dream" automated car park from a concept into a realistic and practical project. Siemens and HKPU have already extended plenty of support to the development of the Automated Car Park. Siemens has provided its advanced technological products including SIMATIC WINCC SIMATIC STEP 7 and SIMATIC MOBY for running the programmes. There were also continual technical support and advice from 2 system integrators, Mice Engineering and ITMation (both are Siemens’ business partners). The project has been developed successfully, and a three-dimensional model of the Automated Car Park of 5 feet wide and 6 feet long was made for demonstration purpose. The design of the Automated Car Park was just like a fully automated warehouse. Procedures such as car parking, taking, tracking and billing can all be operated automatically at one location. Cars would be carried to available parking slots identified by the fully automatic conveyance system. The aluminium multi-layer parking racks save a lot of space. Owing to limited parking space in Hong Kong, such highly efficient, highly secured and space-saving automated car parks will be the best solution and therefore has good development potential.
The objective of the project is simple: To help students of Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HKPU) correlate their academic knowledge with real-world applications and help HKPU strengthen its ties with the commercial sector in Hong Kong. The project was a showcase to demonstrate how innovative industrial automation technology can be tied in with the fast-growing logistics industry. HKPU students prepared an animated version of the automated warehouse model for a hands-on experience with the innovative MOBY electronic identification system, which was new to Hong Kong. The automated warehouse model was built using a special type of industrial “LEGO” components that come with sensors, actuators and DC servomotors – automated by a SIMATIC S7-300 PLC system. MOBY identification systems control and optimize material flow. They are reliable, fast, and economical, insensitive to contaminants, and store data directly in the product. Siemens provided the product know-how for the automated warehouse project, while ITMation Ltd. (a Siemens’ business partner) provided industry and technology know-how to implement the SIMATIC and MOBY systems into the LEGO warehouse model. While the traditional bar code system still dominates Hong Kong’s logistics industry, the MOBY identification system is poised to transform the old standard through its innovative, economical and environmentally friendly approach to traffic control and transport logistics, as well as data storage.