Probabilistic UHF RFID tag pose estimation with multiple antennas and a multipath RF propagation model

—We present a novel particle filter implementation for estimating the pose of tags in the environment with respect to an RFID-equipped robot. This particle filter combines signals from a specially designed RFID antenna system with odometry and an RFID signal propagation model. Our model includes antenna characteristics, direct-path RF propagation, and multi-path RF propagation. We first describe a novel 6-antenna RFID sensor system that provides the robot with a 360-degree view of the tags in its environment. We then present the results of real-world evaluation where RFID-inferred tag position is compared with ground truth data from a laser range-finder. In our experiments the system is shown to estimate the pose of UHF RFID tags in a real-world environment without requiring a priori training or map-building. The system exhibits 6.1deg mean bearing error and 0.69m mean range error over robot to tag distances of over 4m in an environment with significant multipath. The RFID syste...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2008
• Where: IROS
• Authors: Travis Deyle, Charles C. Kemp, Matthew S. Reynolds
• Keywords: IROS 2008, Particle filters, RFID, Robotics, Signal Propagation Models