Global navigation system with RFID tags

A new navigation system is described for a mobile robot moving around in man-made environments such as hallways in a building. The system is based on a commercial three-wheel mobile platform with the addition of a Linux-based laptop computer, a Radio Frequency Identification (RDID) tag sensor and a vision system. At critical junctions such as the intersection of two passages the navigation system must identify the robot's location on a given map. We propose a method using RFID tags as landmarks. Each RFID tag has a unique ID number corresponding to its location on the map. The navigation system can decide the next movement (left-turn, right-turn and so on) toward a given goal based on this number. The navigation system also can automatically follow walls using the vision system. Since the equipment setup is very simple and the navigation system is easily combined with general mobile robot systems, our proposed technique would be useful for real-world robotic applications such as intelligent navigation for motorized wheelchairs.