Lane Keeping and Tracking Through RFID Technology

In this paper, we investigate the possibility of using RFID technology for navigation and guidance within lanes. The lanes consist of RFID tags, placed on the floor. The tags represent unique spatial identifiers. By processing phase-measurements from such tags, a user, carrying an RFID reader, can be ${i}$ ) kept within the lane, ii) guided to the desired destination and iii) tracked in real time. Two properties are exploited for lane-keeping: the measured Rate-Of-Change (ROC) of the phase measurements per tag and the number of readings per tag within given time-periods. Thanks to these properties, an indicator function estimates the pose of the agent within the lane and gives auditory and visual feedback when one approaches the boundaries of the lane. Localization and tracking is accomplished separately by feeding phase-ROC measurements in a particle filter. Robustness of the proposed method is verified by measurements presented herein.