A Mobile Robot Navigation System Using RFID Technology

Skilled navigation in mobile robotics usually requires solving two problems pertaining to the knowledge of the position of the robot, and to a motion control strategy. 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 tasks ought to be solved in conjunction due to their interdependency. The present manuscript proposes a novel mobile robot navigation technique using a customized RFID reader with two receiving antennas mounted on the robot and a number of standard RFID tags attached in the robot's environment to define its path.