Towards an Objective and Precise Moisture Content Measurement of Textiles Using a Chipless RFID Tag-Sensor

One of the challenges in textile engineering is evaluating the moisture retention, or moisture releasing of fabrics, that is a key factor determining wear comfort. Conventionally, this process involves a human decision based on the sensation felt by the assessor, or methods that involve weight uptake or travel distance of water. In this paper, moving toward an automated approach, a chipless RFID tag-sensor is proposed to evaluate the wetness level of cotton fabric. The principle of this sensing system is based on measuring and processing of the reflected radio frequency wave from the wet fabric sample. The preliminary experimental results of the investigation are presented which show that using chipless RFID approach has the potential for a precise automated wetness level measurement.