Abstract
The radio frequency identification (RFID) system has attracting attention as a new identification source that achieves a ubiquitous environment. Each RFID tag has a unique ID code, and is attached on an object whose information it contains. A user reads the unique ID code using RFID readers and obtains information about the object. One of the important applications of RFID technology is the indoor position estimation of RFID tags. It can be applied to navigation systems for people in complex buildings. In this paper, we propose an effective position estimation method named Broad-type Multi-Sensing-Range (B-MSR) method to improve the estimation error of the conventional methods using sensor model. A new reader antenna with two flexible antenna elements is introduced into B-MSR. The distance between two flexible antenna elements can be adjusted. Thus, two kinds of system parameters can be controlled, the distance between two antenna elements and the transmission power of the RFID reader. In this paper, four sensing ranges are settled by controlling the values of two parameters. The performance evaluation shows four characteristics of B-MSR. Firstly, it reduces the initial estimation error. Secondly, it reduces the moving distance. Thirdly, it reduces the number of different sensing points. Fourthly, it shortens the required estimation time.
