IoT Enabled Smart Ration Distribution Systems: A Review of Authentication, Automated Dispensing, Weight Verification, and Digital Monitoring ABSTRACT Public

Public distribution systems have come a long way. Before this era, the technology was used in a single piece, for example: scan a card here; dispense there.The change is now coming about in systems where we no longer see a series of devices (who you are, what you owed, how that comes to you), and whether those records accurately represent that. It explores the integration of different components — RFID, smartcards, biometrics, QR codes, motorized actuators, load cell sensors, GSM and WiFi modules, cloud back ends, and early AI systems — in various systems. This paper draws on eleven studies published between 2018 and 2025 (one being an earlier review). The literature shows what we see. It's clear that manual handling is giving way to sensorassisted, electronically controlled distribution; newer systems do more than the older ones did — they link machine events to record that actually exist. This is not a small thing. But the picture isn't clean. The hardware is not uniform. Test procedures differ. The deployment scale can be from lab benches to a partial field trial, while the success metrics vary and do not fit each other so well that there is no straightforward comparison to make. There are also several issues that remain unanswered: the accuracy of the dispense process in realworld environments; how to deal with varying commodity types in the supply chain; failure modes, including failures due to power outages or network failures; protection of sensitive information; compatibility with other components in the system; accessibility by users who may not be familiar with technical systems; and whether the new AI added to the system does what is claimed. This sets up the experimental context for RationFlow, a closed loop design that brings together authentication, entitlement checks, dispensing, weight feedback, transactions, and inventory states in one integrated system.