RFID based navigation system for indoor mobile robots

Abstract

A new navigation method is described for indoor mobile robots. The robot system is composed of a Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) tag sensor, a laser range scanner, and a commercial three-wheel mobile platform. The RFID tags are used as landmarks for global path planning and the topological relation map which shows the connection of scattered tags through the environment is used as course instructions to a goal. The robot automatically moves along hallways using the scanned range data until a tag is found and then refers to the topological map for the next movement. Our proposed technique would be useful for real-world robotic applications such as intelligent navigation for motorized wheelchairs. © 2011 IFAC.