Development of Monitoring Systems for Cold Chain Logistics

Every day, millions of tons of temperature sensitive goods are produced, transported, stored or distributed worldwide. For all these products quality control and monitoring is essential. The term “cold chain” describes the series of interdependent equipment and processes employed to ensure the temperature preservation of perishables and other temperature-controlled products from the production to the consumption end in a safe, wholesome, and good quality state. In this framework, fieldbus and wireless sensor technologies are entering a new phase. Recent advances offer vast opportunities for research and development. This book presents a series of research studies focused in three emergent sensing technologies: Controller Area Network (CAN), Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN); showing real implementations for tracking and monitoring in the cold chain. Also a new type of traceability system based in web services and georeferenced information is shown. While ideal for students of electronic, agriculture or computer engineering, this text is equally useful for scientists in industry, and research institutes.