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Rich Vossel


Rich has been the Program Manager or Technical Lead on many US DoD contracts providing a full range of AIDC/AIT solutions.   He was the Program Manager for RFID-II while at Savi Technology for the entire duration of the contract.  The RFID-II contract spanned six years providing over $450M of active RFID hardware, software and technical engineering services for all of DoD.

Some of his other DoD programs include:

  • While at Northrop Grumman, he was the Principal Architect of the USAF Supply Asset Tracking System (SATS)
  • Designed the wireless handheld capability for USAF Cargo Movement Operation System (CMOS)
  • Technical lead on the Army LOGMARS (Tactical) program where he developed bar code systems for several Standard Army Information Systems used to manage all classes of supply.
  • Prototyped the first RFID tracking system during Desert Storm (1992) for monitoring the movement of munitions in Saudi Arabia.  This would be later expanded into the Army RF-ITV system.
  • Developed the concept of a Business Process Server used to provide AIT input to standard DoD system prior to full adoption of the technology.
  • Prior to his departure from Savi Technology, he was the Program Manager for the RFID-III contract.  This is third iteration of the active RFID contract vehicles.
  • Prior to entering the AIDC industry, Rich worked for SDC/Unisys on USAF contracts developing software for tactical systems at Langley AFB.

Rich is also an advocate of open standards and instrumental in obtaining industry wide cooperation towards those goals, and was Instrumental in bringing about the RFID ISO standard adopted by the US DoD for In-Transit Visibility (ITV).  In 2006 he was recognized for his standards and educational work by being inducted into the AIDC100.

Rich is an eight year veteran of the USAF where he worked as an avionics technician on large cargo aircraft and a programming technician for real-time tactical command, control, communications and intelligence systems.

Work Experience

Lead Consultant and Owner
Vossel LLC
February 2011 -Present
Rich currently provides consulting services to both the public and private sectors in the areas of AIDC/AIT systems, training and standards. Also provide consulting support for requirements generation, customer relations, business development and contract proposal writing.  As the owner of Vossel LLC, Rich also provides the industry with talent from a pool of engineers and programmers to complete short term projects such as program interfaces, specialized hardware products, and unique solutions.

During this period, Rich performed several short term consulting and training jobs for several AIDC companies.  He worked a major project with Evanhoe and Associates to perform a demonstration for the Nuclear Equipment Tracking System (NETS).  The objective of the NETS demonstration activity was to show a range of technology solutions (this was one of 10 demonstrations awarded) that have the potential to improve total asset visibility for Air Force Nuclear Weapons Related Material (NWRM). Evanhoe provided a comprehensive demonstration integrating passive and active Radio Frequency ID (RFID), Real Time Location System (RTLS), satellite tracking, Biometrics identification (fingerprint), Common Asset Card (CAC) integration and interfaces with existing Air Force legacy systems and environments.  The goal of the demonstration was to show a fully integrated suite of technologies that provides full chain-of-custody throughout the enterprise.  Rich’s role in this demonstration was to evaluate and select the RFID, RTLS, and Satellite technologies to use as well as the overall real-time tracking software.  We also provided design support in creating a seamless chain-of-custody process and project management support.

Vossel LLC is a Veteran Owned Small Business (VOSB) and a member of AIM Global.

Committee Member
AIM Global RFID Experts Group at AIM
January 2003 -Present
The AIM Global RFID Experts Group (REG) brings together the industry leaders in RFID technology in order to facilitate the advancement of the industry and broaden the overall understanding of RFID.

Rich served as the committee chairman from February 2010 to February 2011. This position is limited to one year. During his tenure, the committee grew significantly in the number of active participants and projects.

AIM Global is the trade association for the entire AIDC industry.  During this period, Rich also participated in the Internet of Things (IoT) and Unique Device Identification (UDI) committees.

Committee Member
American National Standards Institute (ANSI) MH10.8 Subcommittee
January 1998-Present
Rich has been a long term voting member of the ANSI MH10.8 subcommittee which performs standards work in the area of material handling data structures for barcodes and RFID tags used to identify shipments and their contents.

Director, Strategic Programs
Savi Technology
October 1999 -February 2011 (11 years 5 months)
Rich provided the major interface between the Department of Defense (US DoD) and Savi on all issues associated with products and product performance along with technical engineering services. He held the position of Program Manager for the RFID-III contract providing ISO based active RFID technology to all parts of the US government.  Prior to this, he managed the RFID-II program which was extended from three to six years and grew from a $90M to $450M program under his direction making it the single largest AIT contract.

As the program manager, Rich worked with Savi Product Management to design, develop, test and promote new products produced specifically to meet the expanding needs of the US DoD warfighter during a time of conflict. He assisted the Savi Sales Team with the closure of key sales.

Rich was instrumental in the development of the Army’s strategy toward migration from a closed ANSI based active RFID standard to an open ISO standard which had reasonable and nondiscriminatory access to the intellectual property.  Rich showed the Army a process that could be used to migrate to a “dual-mode” capability which would allow tags made by both standards to be used during a period of transition.

While at Savi, Rich also supported the standards community including ANSI MH10.8, Dash7 Industrial Association and ISO 18000-7. He was Invited and served as Savi's representative on the AIM Global RFID Experts Group (REG).

Technical Lead
AIT Center at SYSCON/LOGICON/Northrop Grumman - Williamsburg, VA
October 1987 -October 1999 (12 years 1 month)
During this period, Rich was the leader of the Technical Staff responsible for the development of AIT solutions for the Department of Defense. He was also the AIT Technical Lead on the DoD LOGMARS -Tactical program, the Desert Storm Ammo Retrograde program, DoD AIT program (Technical Engineering Support), Army Material Release Order Control System (MROCS), USAF Supply Asset Tracking System (SATS) and the integration of AIT capabilities into Standard Army and Air Force Systems.

Some of Rich’s Projects Include:

  • Designed, developed and lead the in country implementation team for the first successful proof of concept tracking system as part of the DAMMS (Department of the Army Movement Management System) which tracked the movement of ammunition shipments around Saudi Arabia following Desert Storm. This was the first large-scale deployment of RFID to track assets and memory devices to contain cargo manifests.  He designed a system of RFID readers connect back to a central data base using a long range wireless network. This would be the template for the future DoD RF-ITV network which is currently the largest active RFID network in the world.
  • Principal designer of the USAF Supply Asset Tracking System (SATS) and Army Material Release Order Control System (MROCS) which were the first large scale implementation of portable hand held computers communicating through an RF network. This is a bar code based system which started out using a proprietary RF backbone which transitioned to IEEE 802.11 (WiFi) after the development of the standard.
  • Member of the committee that developed the original concept of the Unique Identification (UID) mark and participated in the process that defined the data elements to be used and the nature of the mark (2D matrix barcode).
  • Designed the first use of smart cards as personal identification devices for the legal transfer of property in the SATS delivery process and also designed the first use of smart cards to contain personal data on deploying Army soldiers. Both processes would later be used as the bases for the smartcard portion of the Common Access Card (CAC).
  • Designed the Business Processing Unit used during the EUCOM AIT test in the 1990s.  The BPU would provide input from and output to many different forms of AIT to include barcodes, optical memory cards and RFID tags.  The BPU was used as a proof of principal showing how AIT enhances the overall business process without making major changes to Army and USAF standard logistics systems.
  • Trained USAF personnel in the types of technologies beyond bar codes that could be used as AIDC. This was part of a traveling training program sponsored by the AF AIT Office.
  • Designed the first file transfer protocols used to link tactical hand held computers to Army standard systems.

Rich’s work at the center started with SYSCON on the LOGMARS (tactical) program.  SYSCON would later be acquired by LOGICON which would even later be acquired by Northrop Grumman.  Rich was one of the principal founders of the AIT center in Williamsburg, Virginia and was responsible for the hiring, mentoring and training of many AIT professionals who continue to contribute to the AIDC community in a very big way.

While working as a the lead programmer at the AIT center, Rich programmed in C++, Pascal, Ada, UBasic, IRL, TCal, FORTRAN and COBAL on existing Standard Army Multi-command Management Information Systems (STAMMIS) logistics systems and Air Force logistic systems.

Project Software Engineer
System Development Corporation/Unisys - Hampton, VA
May 1980 -October 1987 (7 years 6 months)
During this period, Rich worked on a number of USAF programs designing and developing software for several Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence (C3I)systems used by the Tactical Air Command (now Air Combat Command) at Langley AFB, VA.

Some of Rich’s projects include:

  • Research and Development on ways to perform automated text parsing on DoD textual messages into defense data bases for analysis.  This system was written in Ada.
  • Lead engineer on the TIPI IIS JINTACCS Upgrade Project. Designed the enhancement to the system that allowed the photo interpreter to enter intelligence data directly into on screen templates which allowed pull down lists and help text.  This was an assembly language based system which pre-dated modern windows based systems.
  • Provided software development support for the Air Force PTU Support Project.   Re-designed the disk operating system to work with new disk technology and enhanced the bootstrap loader.  Programming was performed in assembly language and JOVIAL.
  • Provided Programming support on the 407L Radar project for both console operations and weaponeering algorithms.
  • Designed and programmed the software in testing equipment used to test and condition communication lines between tactical systems.

During this period, Rich wrote programs in assembly language in real-time environments.  He also programmed in BASIC, Fortran, Ada, JOVIAL, Lisp, and PROLOG.

Pogramming Technician (7-Level)
United States Air Force - Langley AFB, VA
March 1976 -May 1980 (4 years 3 months)
Rich provided programming support for real-time tactical defense systems at Langley AFB Programmed primarily in assembly language. During his time at Langley, Rich’s production rate was higher than any other programmer on staff.  During one version cycle, he was responsible for almost half of all fixes and enhancements made to the system on a staff of over 25 programmers.  He was the NCOIC of the Command Console programming team on the 407L radar project which consisted of six enlisted programmers.  Rich graduated from programming school at Keesler AFB prior to his assignment at Langley.

Automatic Flight Control Systems Tech (7 Level)
United States Air Force - McChord AFB, WA
September 1972 -March 1976 (3 years 7 months)
Rich was an avionics technician repairing digital autopilots, navigation systems and automated landing systems on USAF aircraft at McChord AFB, WA.  After promotion to E-5 he was made the NCOIC of the swing shift where he supervised a team of eight avionics technicians.  Rich graduated from electronics school at Chanute AFB prior to arriving at McChord.  He also received specialized training in the repair of C-5 aircraft at Travis AFB.

Education

  • Bachelor Degree in Mathematics with Studies in Computer Science – Christopher Newport University, Newport News, VA – Graduated Magna Cum Laude.
  • 21 hours graduate studies in Computer Science at the College of William and Mary in Virginia, Williamsburg, VA.