Utilizing Drone for Food Quality and Safety Detection using Wireless Sensors

Abstract

This paper contributes towards one of the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of responsible food consumption and production by coupling Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) sensors to drones in order to detect foods’ quality and safety. The proposed model design aims to measure resonant frequency of goods dielectric constants wirelessly from an aerial drone for safety and security purposes. To the best of the author’s knowledge, it is the first work on remote aerial autonomous sensing for food quality and safety. This article fills a knowledge gap and opens an innovative research direction toward Internet of Everything (IoE) via drones in food safety that can be used production, warehouse management, logistics tracking, and product authenticity measures. Simulation results using CST microwave studio and MATLAB tools confirm that enabling-RFID and drone for detecting foods’ quality and safety is a promising and cost-effective approach that pursue the aim of this article.