RFID based navigation system for unmanned material handling vehicles using FPGA

Abstract

The paper reports a navigation system which uses passive RFID tags for localization. The entire terrain is mapped into a grid of nodes each containing a tag that refers to a specific location on the terrain which is sensed by the vehicle using the onboard compatible RFID reader. These tags provide the vehicle with the sense of its position and orientation on the terrain. The system uses Flood fill algorithm to generate the shortest path to the destination while also maneuvering the obstacles. During the course of traversing the path, on reading each tag, the system ensures that the location read from tag is consistent with the generated route. On the event of any mismatch, a new path to the destination is generated, empowering the system with error detection and correction capabilities. The system uses FPGA as the processing unit on account of its flexibility and high parallel processing capabilities.