Indoor mobile object tracking using RFID

• Published in: Future generation computer systems Vol. 76; pp. 443 - 451
• Main Authors: Seol, Soonuk, Lee, Eun-Kyu, Kim, Wooseong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01-11-2017
• Subjects: Fault tolerance; Internet of Things; Localization; Range free; RFID; Fault tolerance; RFID; Internet of Things; Localization; Range free
• ISSN: 0167-739X; 1872-7115
• DOI: 10.1016/j.future.2016.08.005

Indoor tracking has been a challenging task compared to outdoor cases provided by GPS and a variety of ranging-based solutions. In this work, we propose a promising approach using RFID for indoor mobile object tracking. A moving object equipped with an RFID tag can be tracked by the pre-deployed RFID reader network. It is in the interest of many scenarios due to its low cost, ease of deployment and good performance in indoor settings. However, the identification of a large scale of tags that surround RFID readers within the limited time raises a big challenge for RFID-based tracking. To solve this problem, we propose two core design components, RFID MAC and a range-free tracking algorithm. In MAC layer, we develop two protocols, one is Framed Slotted Aloha (random access) and the other is Tree-Walking (polling), as the underlying sensing component. We also develop a basic tracking on a central node which collects tag identification information from all RFID readers. Our system is implemented in the Qualnet tool, and we run numerous experiments to study performance under different parameter settings. These results validate the effectiveness of our indoor tracking solution using RFID.
•High mobility objects are tracked fast without indoor ranging.•Tracking accuracy is enhanced from collisions of many objects and imperfect sensing.•New MAC and tracking algorithm are proposed for RFID based indoor localization.