Utilizing RFID Signaling Scheme for Localization of Stationary Objects and Speed Estimation of Mobile Objects

Mapping the physical location of nodes within a wireless sensor network (WSN) is critical in many applications such as tracking and environmental sampling. Passive RFID tags pose an interesting solution to localizing nodes because an outside reader, rather than the tag, supplies the power to the tag. Thus, utilizing passive RFID technology allows a localization scheme to not be limited to objects that have wireless communication capability because the technique only requires that the object carries a RFID tag. This paper illustrates a method in which objects can be localized without the need to communicate received signal strength information between the reader and the tagged item. The method matches tag count percentage patterns under different signal attenuation levels to a database of tag count percentages, attenuations and distances from the base station reader.