Experiments on a novel modular cost-effective RFID-based mobile robot navigation system

Abstract

Mobile robot navigation using an analog signal strength of a Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) device is a promising alternative of different types of robot navigation methods in the state of the art. Skilled navigation in mobile robotics usually requires solving two problems: the knowledge of the position of the robot, and a motion control strategy. Moreover, when no prior knowledge of the environment is available, the problem becomes even more challenging, since the robot has to build a map of its surroundings as it moves. These three problems ought to be solved in conjunction, since they are interdependent. The objective of this manuscript is to introduce an innovative cost-effective mobile robot navigation strategy using the features of a specific analog signal from an RFID system. The proposed navigation method is easily implementable on virtually any indoor robotic system with a low computational complexity. Numerical computer simulations are carried out to illustrate the performance of the proposed scheme. © 2007 IEEE.