Systems and methods are provided for worksite automation. One example method includes receiving a work request indicative of at least one of a first item or one or more work request parameters, where the first item is one of a plurality of items stored in an item-storage environment, and where each item is associated with a co-located identifier device; in response to receipt of the work request: identifying the first item; determining a target location corresponding to the first item; selecting an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from a plurality of encoder UAVs in the item-storage environment, where each encoder UAV includes an encoder device configured to encode data to the identifier devices associated with the plurality of items; and causing the selected UAV to: (a) travel to the target location, and (b) while hovering near to the location, encode particular identification data to the device associated with the first item.