Performance, Accuracy and Generalization Capability of RFID Tags’ Constellation for Indoor Localization

• Main Authors: Elias Hatem, Sara Abou-Chakra, Elizabeth Colin, Jean-Marc Laheurte, Bachar El-Hassan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-07-01
• Series: Sensors
• Subjects: indoor localization; received signal strength indicator; multiple input and single output; UHF RFID tags; constellation of tags; position error
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/20/15/4100

Indoor localization has recently witnessed an increase in interest due to its wide range of potential services. Further, the location information is very important in many applications, such as the Internet of Things, logistics, library management and so on. Hence, different technologies and techniques have been proposed in the literature for indoor localization systems. Most of these systems present the disadvantages of a poor performance, low accuracy and high cost. However, thanks to its low cost, high accuracy and non-line-of-sight detection, radio frequency identification (RFID)-based localization has increasingly become the most used technology for indoor localization. In this paper, we propose an innovative approach based on the multiple input single output (MISO) protocol to improve the accuracy of a low-cost RFID localization system. Whereas most traditional systems use a single tag for localization, the proposed architecture encourages the use of a group of RFID tags named as a constellation. According to experimental results and based on the signals’ diversity, the location accuracy is improved to get an estimated position error of 81 cm at the cumulative distribution function of 90%.