RILS: RFID indoor localization system using mobile readers

Abstract

The radio frequency identification technology was given greater interest as it is widely used for identification and localization in the cognitive radio sensor networks. While radio frequency identification–based indoor localization is attractive, the need for a large-scale and high-density deployment of readers and reference tags is costly. Using mobile readers mounted on guide rails, we design and implement an RFID indoor localization system, which requires neither reference tags nor received signal strength indicator functions, for stock-taking and searching in warehouse operations. In particular, we install two guide rails, which can allow a reader to move horizontally or vertically, on the ceiling of a warehouse or workshop. We then propose a continuous scanning algorithm to improve the accuracy for locating a single tagged object and a category-based scheduling algorithm to shorten the time for locating multiple tagged objects. Our primary experimental results show that RFID indoor localization system can achieve high time efficiency and localization accuracy in the indoor localization.