Direction Sensing RFID Reader for Mobile Robot Navigation

A self-contained direction sensing radio frequency identification (RFID) reader is developed employing a dual-directional antenna for automated target acquisition and docking of a mobile robot in indoor environments. The dual-directional antenna estimates the direction of arrival (DOA) of signals from a transponder by using the ratio of the received signal strengths between two adjacent antennas. This enables the robot to continuously monitor the changes in transponder directions and ensures reliable docking guidance to the target transponder. One of the technical challenges associated with this RFID direction finding is to sustain the accuracy of the estimated DOA that varies according to environmental conditions. It is often the case that the robot loses its way to the target in a cluttered environment. To cope with this problem, the direction correction algorithm is proposed to triangulate the location of the transponder with the most recent three DOA estimates. Theoretical simulation results verify the reliability of the proposed algorithm that quantifies the potential error in the DOA estimation. Using the algorithm, we validate mobile robot docking to an RFID transponder in an office environment occupied by obstacles.

[1]  Hari Balakrishnan,et al.  Tracking moving devices with the cricket location system , 2004, MobiSys '04.

[2]  R. Bansal,et al.  Antenna theory; analysis and design , 1984, Proceedings of the IEEE.

[3]  Andrea Goldsmith,et al.  Wireless Communications , 2005, 2021 15th International Conference on Advanced Technologies, Systems and Services in Telecommunications (TELSIKS).

[4]  Barry Brumitt,et al.  EasyLiving: Technologies for Intelligent Environments , 2000, HUC.

[5]  B. R. Badrinath,et al.  Ad hoc positioning system (APS) using AOA , 2003, IEEE INFOCOM 2003. Twenty-second Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies (IEEE Cat. No.03CH37428).

[6]  Nak Young Chong,et al.  Automated Robot Docking Using Direction Sensing RFID , 2007, Proceedings 2007 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[7]  Albrecht Schmidt,et al.  Building intelligent environments with Smart-Its , 2004, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications.

[8]  Gaetano Borriello,et al.  Location Systems for Ubiquitous Computing , 2001, Computer.

[9]  J. Kong,et al.  Scattering of Electromagnetic Waves: Advanced Topics , 2001 .

[10]  Yunhao Liu,et al.  LANDMARC: Indoor Location Sensing Using Active RFID , 2004, Proceedings of the First IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications, 2003. (PerCom 2003)..

[11]  Constantine A. Balanis,et al.  Antenna Theory: Analysis and Design , 1982 .

[12]  Klaus Finkenzeller,et al.  Book Reviews: RFID Handbook: Fundamentals and Applications in Contactless Smart Cards and Identification, 2nd ed. , 2004, ACM Queue.

[13]  Bruce A. MacDonald,et al.  Vision-based localization algorithm based on landmark matching, triangulation, reconstruction, and comparison , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Robotics.

[14]  A.G. d'Assuncao,et al.  Efficient ray-tracing method for indoor propagation prediction , 2005, SBMO/IEEE MTT-S International Conference on Microwave and Optoelectronics, 2005..

[15]  Hari Balakrishnan,et al.  6th ACM/IEEE International Conference on on Mobile Computing and Networking (ACM MOBICOM ’00) The Cricket Location-Support System , 2022 .

[16]  Gaetano Borriello,et al.  SpotON: An Indoor 3D Location Sensing Technology Based on RF Signal Strength , 2000 .

[17]  William Clouser Boyd,et al.  Fundamentals of Immunology , 1958 .

[18]  Nak Young Chong,et al.  A distributed knowledge network for real world robot applications , 2004, 2004 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) (IEEE Cat. No.04CH37566).

[19]  James J. Little,et al.  Vision-based global localization and mapping for mobile robots , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Robotics.

[20]  Nak Young Chong,et al.  RFID-based mobile robot guidance to a stationary target , 2007 .

[21]  Nak Young Chong,et al.  Enhancing RFID Location Sensing Using a Dual Directional Antenna , 2005 .

[22]  Abbas Jamalipour,et al.  Wireless communications , 2005, GLOBECOM '05. IEEE Global Telecommunications Conference, 2005..

[23]  Paramvir Bahl,et al.  RADAR: an in-building RF-based user location and tracking system , 2000, Proceedings IEEE INFOCOM 2000. Conference on Computer Communications. Nineteenth Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies (Cat. No.00CH37064).

[24]  B. R. Badrinath,et al.  Ad hoc positioning system (APS) , 2001, GLOBECOM'01. IEEE Global Telecommunications Conference (Cat. No.01CH37270).

[25]  Kristofer S. J. Pister,et al.  RF Time of Flight Ranging for Wireless Sensor Network Localization , 2006, 2006 International Workshop on Intelligent Solutions in Embedded Systems.