AUTONOMOUS MOBILE ROBOT NAVIGATION SYSTEMS USING RFID AND THEIR APPLICATIONS

Abstraction: - Many existing methods for robust and stable mobile robot
navigation employ sensors such as vision, sonar, or inertial sensors; however, these often have problems with reliability. A common, but sometimes overlooked, solution is the use of radio frequency identification (RFID). Using RFID, one can dynamically calculate the robots pose from the information of RFID tags and navigate autonomously with precise localization, even without all of the aforementioned sensors. Presented in this chapter are methods for estimating location and pose and how RFID can be used to navigate a mobile robot with not only regular patterns but also randomly distributed patterns of tags. In addition, a new concept, called read time, is introduced, which can reduce localization error in RFID - based navigation. There is also explanation of how the system can be extended to perform obstacle avoidance, and possible applications for RFID - based navigation systems.

BLOCK DIAGRAM:-

LEFT MOTOR MICROCONTROLLER MOTOR IC RIGHT MOTOR

1 2 3

RFID READER

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RFID TAGS INTRODUCTION: Inertial systems are the most simple, in both hardware and software. For example, when the robot begins to move, encoders on the wheels can be used to count how many revolutions are made and thereby the distance traveled can be estimated. While this approach would seem to be very robust, in reality, it suffers from error which is compounded over the distance traveled. This error can be caused by lateral drift, wheel slippage, or counting errors. Conversely, absolute systems continuously update the localization estimation by recognizing landmarks in the environment whose positions are known, often through the use of cameras or laser range finders. However, these systems often rely on recognition algorithms, which can be computationally intense and suffer from environmental problems such as inconsistent lighting or landmarks being obscured by obstacles. In an attempt to solve these problems, many systems have been presented which utilize some combination of inertial and absolute approaches, a simple example of which would be an inertial system that also uses landmark recognition in order to reduce its localization estimation error. The drawback to these hybrid, or fusion, systems is that while they are often able to increase accuracy, they also increase the system cost, in terms of both hardware and computational complexity. There are two schools of thought when it comes to solving the problem of mobile robot navigation. The first is based around the idea of upgrading the mechanical and software systems of the robot. However, it often concerns the increase of sensors mounted on the robot in order to reduce localization error. For example, if we are utilizing a scanning laser to detect wall features, the addition of more scanning lasers will allow us to compare the results from all the sensors and reduce noise and error. In general, the addition of more sensors will provide you with more accurate results; however, this comes at a higher cost, again, in both the hardware and software. The second school of thought is based on improving the
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environment in which the robot will operate. This can involve the installation of cameras or other sensors to detect the location of the robot in the navigable area. An added bonus of this is that these upgrades can be used by multiple robots/systems. RFID can be an excellent tool to improve the navigable area. By placing RFID tags throughout the area, robots can utilize these tags to determine their location and perform navigation. RFID is an automatic identification technology using a radio frequency [1] to identify and track a product, animal, or person. RFID systems can also include software such as drivers and middleware. The reader emits a radio frequency in ranges of anywhere from 1 in. to 10 m or more, depending on its power and the used radio frequency. When an RFID tag passes through the electromagnetic zone, it is detected by the reader. Then, the reader decodes the data in the RFID tags integrated circuit and the data are passed to the PC for processing. The communication between an antenna and RFID tags uses inductive coupling and each has a coil. The energy is transferred from an antenna to RFID tags by means of mutual inductance between the two circuits. In general, there are four frequencies used for RFID system. Each frequency has unique features as follows. Therefore, when using an RFID system, we should select the frequency most suitable for the application. CONCLUSION: Mobile robots are becoming intelligent, autonomous systems, gradually becoming able to accomplish assigned tasks such as guidance, transportation, and human robot cooperation. For these tasks, a robust and stable navigation system is a key requirement. In this chapter, an autonomous navigation system using only passive RFID was presented. Utilizing the location information of the previous and currently detected RFID tags, pose estimation can be performed without the aid of additional internal or external sensors. In order to further reify ne the localization, the use of read time, the total time a given tag is detected, was described. In presented experimental results, the localization error was reduced to less than one - fifth of the scanning range of the antenna. The concept of read time was further extended
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for use in single and multiple static obstacle avoidance. For single static obstacle avoidance, directional information was added to RFID tags surrounding obstacles. In the case of multiple static obstacles, the read time of RFID tags in a specific region was used to provideprecise orientation. Finally, some applications were discussed, such as a handheld device that could be used to easily update tag database information in the event static obstacles are repositioned, and a wireless sensor network fusion system, which can provide speedy and precise navigation.

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