288 research outputs found
Spatial Identification Methods and Systems for RFID Tags
DisertaÄŤnĂ práce je zaměřena na metody a systĂ©my pro měřenĂ vzdálenosti a lokalizaci RFID tagĹŻ pracujĂcĂch v pásmu UHF. Ăšvod je vÄ›nován popisu souÄŤasnĂ©ho stavu vÄ›deckĂ©ho poznánĂ v oblasti RFID prostorovĂ© identifikace a struÄŤnĂ©mu shrnutĂ problematiky modelovánĂ a návrhu prototypĹŻ tÄ›chto systĂ©mĹŻ. Po specifikaci cĂlĹŻ disertace pokraÄŤuje práce popisem teorie modelovánĂ degenerovanĂ©ho kanálu pro RFID komunikaci. DetailnÄ› jsou rozebrány metody měřenĂ vzdálenosti a odhadu smÄ›ru pĹ™Ăchodu signálu zaloĹľenĂ© na zpracovánĂ fázovĂ© informace. Pro účely lokalizace je navrĹľeno nÄ›kolik scĂ©nářů rozmĂstÄ›nĂ antĂ©n. Modely degenerovanĂ©ho kanálu jsou simulovány v systĂ©mu MATLAB. VĂ˝znamná část tĂ©to práce je vÄ›nována konceptu softwarovÄ› definovanĂ©ho rádia (SDR) a specifikĹŻm jeho adaptace na UHF RFID, která vyuĹľitĂ běžnĂ˝ch SDR systĂ©mĹŻ znaÄŤnÄ› omezujĂ. Diskutována je zejmĂ©na problematika prĹŻniku nosnĂ© vysĂlaÄŤe do pĹ™ijĂmacĂ cesty a poĹľadavky na signál lokálnĂho oscilátoru pouĹľĂvanĂ˝ pro směšovánĂ. Prezentovány jsou tĹ™i vyvinutĂ© prototypy: experimentálnĂ dotazovaÄŤ EXIN-1, měřicĂ systĂ©m zaloĹľenĂ˝ na platformÄ› Ettus USRP a antĂ©nnĂ pĹ™epĂnacĂ matice pro emulaci SIMO systĂ©mu. ZávÄ›reÄŤná část je zaměřena na testovánĂ a zhodnocenĂ popisovanĂ˝ch lokalizaÄŤnĂch technik, zaloĹľenĂ˝ch na měřenĂ komplexnĂ pĹ™enosovĂ© funkce RFID kanálu. Popisuje ĂşzkopásmovĂ©/širokopásmovĂ© měřenĂ vzdálenosti a metody odhadu smÄ›ru signálu. Oba navrĹľenĂ© scĂ©náře rozmĂstÄ›nĂ antĂ©n jsou v závÄ›ru ověřeny lokalizaÄŤnĂm měřenĂm v reálnĂ˝ch podmĂnkách.The doctoral thesis is focused on methods and systems for ranging and localization of RFID tags operating in the UHF band. It begins with a description of the state of the art in the field of RFID positioning with short extension to the area of modeling and prototyping of such systems. After a brief specification of dissertation objectives, the thesis overviews the theory of degenerate channel modeling for RFID communication. Details are given about phase-based ranging and direction of arrival finding methods. Several antenna placement scenarios are proposed for localization purposes. The degenerate channel models are simulated in MATLAB. A significant part of the thesis is devoted to software defined radio (SDR) concept and its adaptation for UHF RFID operation, as it has its specialties which make the usage of standard SDR test equipment very disputable. Transmit carrier leakage into receiver path and requirements on local oscillator signals for mixing are discussed. The development of three experimental prototypes is also presented there: experimental interrogator EXIN-1, measurement system based on Ettus USRP platform, and antenna switching matrix for an emulation of SIMO system. The final part is focused on testing and evaluation of described positioning techniques based on complex backscatter channel transfer function measurement. Both narrowband/wideband ranging and direction of arrival methods are validated. Finally, both proposed antenna placement scenarios are evaluated with real-world measurements.
Dense and long-term monitoring of Earth surface processes with passive RFID -- a review
Billions of Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) passive tags are produced
yearly to identify goods remotely. New research and business applications are
continuously arising, including recently localization and sensing to monitor
earth surface processes. Indeed, passive tags can cost 10 to 100 times less
than wireless sensors networks and require little maintenance, facilitating
years-long monitoring with ten's to thousands of tags. This study reviews the
existing and potential applications of RFID in geosciences. The most mature
application today is the study of coarse sediment transport in rivers or
coastal environments, using tags placed into pebbles. More recently, tag
localization was used to monitor landslide displacement, with a centimetric
accuracy. Sensing tags were used to detect a displacement threshold on unstable
rocks, to monitor the soil moisture or temperature, and to monitor the snowpack
temperature and snow water equivalent. RFID sensors, available today, could
monitor other parameters, such as the vibration of structures, the tilt of
unstable boulders, the strain of a material, or the salinity of water. Key
challenges for using RFID monitoring more broadly in geosciences include the
use of ground and aerial vehicles to collect data or localize tags, the
increase in reading range and duration, the ability to use tags placed under
ground, snow, water or vegetation, and the optimization of economical and
environmental cost. As a pattern, passive RFID could fill a gap between
wireless sensor networks and manual measurements, to collect data efficiently
over large areas, during several years, at high spatial density and moderate
cost.Comment: Invited paper for Earth Science Reviews. 50 pages without references.
31 figures. 8 table
The SARFID technique for discriminating tagged items moving through a UHF-RFID gate
The discrimination of tagged items moving along a conveyor belt from other tagged items that are present in the scenario is investigated, when a UHF-RFID gate is installed at a conveyor section. Indeed, tagged items that are static or randomly moving in the scenario (nomad tags) around the reader antenna could be detected even if they are not on the conveyor (false positive readings). The classification procedure here proposed exploits the SARFID phase-based technique used to localize tags on a conveyor belt, which takes advantage of the fact that the tagged items move along a conveyor, whose path and instantaneous speed are both known. The latter can be implemented with only a firmware upgrade, in any conveyor belt scenario already equipped with an RFID system, without any modification of the system infrastructure and additional (reference tags/multiple antennas) or ad hoc hardware. From experimental results in a real scenario, the discrimination between moving tags from static/nomad tags can be obtained with an overall accuracy greater than 99.9%, by employing only one reader antenna
Diseño y aplicaciones de sistemas de antenas inteligentes para redes inalámbricas en el contexto de la internet de las cosas
[SPA] Esta tesis doctoral se presenta bajo la modalidad de compendio de publicaciones. Las antenas de onda de fuga (LWA) consisten en una estructura de guĂa de onda que permite la fuga de parte de la potencia a lo largo de la estructura. Por esta razĂłn, la radiaciĂłn de la antena se produce por la fuga de energĂa. Para producir una radiaciĂłn coherente, es necesario controlar esta tasa de radiaciĂłn a lo largo de la estructura radiante. AsĂ, ajustando con precisiĂłn la tasa de radiaciĂłn, se controla la forma del diagrama de radiaciĂłn. Las LWAs han sido ampliamente estudiadas por la comunidad cientĂfica debido a sus ventajas, tales como, red de alimentaciĂłn simple, alta directividad y escaneo en frecuencia pasivo. Sin embargo, presentan ciertas desventajas entre las cuales, la más importante a destacar es el efecto de beam-squinting. Éste se produce por la propiedad dispersiva inherente a este tipo de antenas. Además, presentan dificultades a la hora de generar radiaciĂłn coherente en las direcciones broadside y endfire, aumentando la complejidad del diseĹ„o para la radiaciĂłn en dichas direcciones. Las LWA han sido relativamente poco utilizadas en aplicaciones prácticas hasta la fecha, a pesar de sus ventajas. Las pocas aplicaciones en las que se han utilizado son los radares de onda continua modulada en frecuencia y los sistemas de enfoque controlado en frecuencia de campo cercano. Esta tesis propone el uso de las LWAs en aplicaciones prácticas aprovechando las ventajas mencionadas anteriormente y teniendo en cuenta los inconvenientes de este tipo de antenas para que su uso no sea limitado. Recientemente, las LWAs han sido propuestas para aplicaciones de localizaciĂłn de bajo coste, ya que permiten el diseĹ„o de estructuras planas con haces directivos. Además, debido al aumento exponencial del uso de la tecnologĂa, es necesario encontrar nuevas tecnologĂas para una transmisiĂłn de datos mayor, más rápida y más eficiente, manteniendo bajos costes de fabricaciĂłn. Por lo tanto las LWAs pueden ser una soluciĂłn crucial al mezclar bajos costes de fabricaciĂłn, alta integrabilidad en diferentes sistemas debido a su tecnologĂa impresa planar y alta directividad al mismo tiempo que se aprovecha su caracterĂstica dispersiva que proporciona un escaneo pasivo en frecuencia. En este contexto, la principal aportaciĂłn de esta Tesis consiste en el estudio, análisis, diseĹ„o e integraciĂłn de LWAs en aplicaciones reales y prácticas. Esta Tesis presenta las siguientes tres contribuciones principales, definidas en los tres bloques principales de este documento: • Estudio y análisis de LWAs para su uso en sistemas de estimaciĂłn de direcciĂłn de llegada basados en tĂ©cnicas de amplitud de monopulso. Comparar las caracterĂsticas y prestaciones de las LWAs junto con las antenas comerciales más utilizadas. Para ello, diseĹ„ar y fabricar las HWM-LWAs con el fin de comparar sus prestaciones con las antenas de panel adquiridas comercialmente. Dado que cada aplicaciĂłn requiere el diseĹ„o de una HWM-LWA nueva y diferente, estudiar y proponer una tĂ©cnica eficiente de análisis y diseĹ„o de antenas para obtener fácilmente diagramas de radiaciĂłn monopulso escaneados en frecuencia. • Una vez analizado que las HWM-LWA son una soluciĂłn factible para su uso en aplicaciones reales de localizaciĂłn debido a sus diversas ventajas. Integrar las HWM-LWAs diseĹ„adas en sistemas digitales para estimaciĂłn del ángulo de llegada en interiores. Por lo tanto, diseĹ„ar, desarrollar, configurar e integrar las LWAs en diferentes sistemas basados en las bandas de frecuencia Wi-Fi ISM de 2,4 GHz y 5 GHz. Finalmente, comparar los resultados de estimaciĂłn obtenidos con otras soluciones propuestas para corroborar que los LWAs pueden ser utilizados en aplicaciones reales. • Asimismo, debido a su bajo coste de fabricaciĂłn y a su principal propiedad de escaneo en frecuencia. Ampliar el uso de las LWAs para la localizaciĂłn angular en redes de sensores inalámbricas (WSN) utilizando la banda de frecuencias UHF de 900 MHz. Utilizando asĂ etiquetas RFID pasivas. TambiĂ©n estudiar su aplicabilidad en WSNs utilizando etiquetas LoRa activas. Este documento se presenta como una Tesis por compendio, por lo que se presentarán y explicarán brevemente los 4 artĂculos de revistas que se han publicado durante el programa de doctorado. Además, tambiĂ©n se presentarán algunos artĂculos de conferencias y otros trabajos en revisiĂłn para exponer algunas de las investigaciones que no han sido publicadas en revistas hasta la fecha de depĂłsito de tesis. El documento está organizado como se indica a continuaciĂłn: En la IntroducciĂłn, se presenta una contextualizaciĂłn del estado del arte y una explicaciĂłn rigurosa sobre las LWAs y las aplicaciones anteriormente mencionadas. Las dos partes siguientes se vi dedican a presentar y explicar brevemente los trabajos publicados que contribuyen a esta Tesis. En la parte II, se presentan los cuatro artĂculos que conforman el compendio. Esto es, el análisis de las LWAs para la estimaciĂłn de la direcciĂłn del ángulo de llegada y la integraciĂłn de las LWAs en sistemas de localizaciĂłn digital usando el protocolo Wi-Fi en el CapĂtulo 1, la banda de frecuencias ISM UHF 900 MHz se utiliza junto con los HWM-LWAs en el CapĂtulo 2, luego se implementa en un sistema en tiempo real para la estimaciĂłn de la direcciĂłn de llegada de mĂşltiples tags pasivos en el CapĂtulo 3 y la integraciĂłn de LoRa en el CapĂtulo 4. Finalmente, en la Parte III, se discuten las conclusiones generales y las futuras lĂneas de investigaciĂłn. [ENG] This doctoral dissertation has been presented in the form of thesis by publication. Leaky-Wave Antennas (LWA) consist on a waveguide structure which allows the leakage of part of the power along the structure. For this reason, the radiation of the antenna is produced by the leakage of power. In order to produce coherent radiation, it is necessary to control this leakage rate along the radiating structure. Thus, precisely adjusting the leakage rate, the shape of the radiation pattern is controlled. LWAs have been widely studied by the scientific community due to their advantages, such as, simple feeding network, high directivity and passive frequency-scanning performance. However, they present certain disadvantages among which, the most important to highlight is the beam-squinting effect. TThis is due to the inherent dispersion property of this type of antenna. In addition, LWAs present difficulties when generating coherent radiation in broadside and endfire directions, increasing the complexity of the design for radiation in these directions. LWAs have been relatively unused in practical applications to date, despite of their benefits. The few applications in which they have been used are frequency modulated continuous wave radars and near-field frequency controlled focusing systems.This thesis proposes the use of LWAs in practical applications by exploiting the advantages mentioned above while taking into account the drawbacks of this type of antennas so that their use is not limited. Recently, LWAs have been proposed for low-cost localization applications, as they allow the design of planar structures with directive beams. In addition, due to the exponential increase in the use of technology, it is necessary to find new technologies for higher, faster and more efficient data transmission while maintaining low manufacturing costs. Therefore, LWAs can be a crucial solution mixing low manufacturing costs, high integrability in different systems due to their planar printed technology and high directivity while taking advantage of their dispersive characteristic that provides passive frequency scanning. In this context, the main contribution of this Thesis consist of the study, analysis, design and integration of LWAs in real and practical applications. This Thesis presents the following three main contributions, defined in the three main blocks of this document: • Study and analysis of LWAs for its use in direction of arrival estimation systems based on monopulse amplitude techniques. Compare the characteristics and performance of LWAs along with widely used commercial antennas. For this purpose, design and manufacture the HWM-LWAs in order to compare their performance with commercially acquired panel antennas. Since each application requires the design of a new and different HWM-LWA, a main objective of this block is to study and propose an efficient antenna analysis and design technique to facilitate obtaining frequency-scanned monopulse patterns. • Once analyzed that LWAs are a feasible solution for its use in real localization applications due to their several advantages, integrate the designed half-width microstrip (HWM-LWAs) in digital indoor angle-of-arrival estimation systems. Therefore, design, develop, configure and integrate LWAs in different systems based on the Wi-Fi ISM 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequency bands. Finally, compare the obtained estimation results with other proposed solutions to corroborate that LWAs can be used in real applications. • Extending the use of antennas for angular localization in sensor networks using the 900 MHz UHF frequency band: the main properties of low manufacturing cost and passive frequency beam scanning can be used in other applications. Thus, the localization estimation of passive RFID tags is studied, as well as their application in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) using active tags with LORA technology. This document is presented as a Thesis by compilation, so the 4 journal articles that have been published during the Ph.D program will be presented and briefly explained. Besides, some conference articles and other work under review will be also presented to expose some of the research that has not been published in journals. The document is organized as outlined hereafter: In Part I, a state-of-the-art contextualization, a rigorous explanation about LWAs and the previous applications mentioned above is presented. The next two parts are dedicated to present and briefly explain the published works included in this Thesis and their main contributions. In Part II the explanation of the four papers which compose the compendium are presented. This is, LWAs analysis for direction of arrival estimation and the integration of LWAs in digital Wi-Fi localization systems in chapter 1, the UHF 900 MHz ISM frequency band is used in conjunction with HWM-LWAs in chapter 2, then, it is implemented in a real time system for direction of arrival estimation of multi RFID tags in chapter 3 and LoRa integration in chapter 4. Finally, in Part III, the overall conclusions and the future research lines are discussed.Esta tesis doctoral se presenta bajo la modalidad de compendio de publicaciones. Está formada por un total de cuatro artĂculos. Article 1.-: A. Gil-Martinez, M. Poveda-Garcia, J. A. Lopez-Pastor, J. C. Sanchez-Aarnoutse and J. L. Gomez-Tornero, Wi-Fi Direction Finding with Frequency-Scanned Antenna and Channel Hopping Scheme IEEE sensors Journal, , vol. 22, no. 6, pp. 5210-5222, 2022. DOI: 10.1109/JSEN.2021.3122232. Article 2.-: A. Gil-Martinez, M. Poveda-Garcia, D. Cañete-Rebenaque, and J. L. Gomez-Tornero, Frequency-Scanned Monopulse Antenna for RSSI-based Direction Finding of UHF RFID tags IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters,, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 158-162, 2022. DOI: 10.1109/LAWP.2021.3122232. Article 3.-: A. Gil-Martinez, M. Poveda-Garcia, J. Garcia-Fernandez, M. Campo-Valera, D. Cañete-Rebenaque, and J. L. Gomez-Tornero, Direction Finding of RFID tags in UHF Band Using a Passive Beam-Scanning Leaky-Wave Antenna IEEE Journal of Radio Frequency Identi cation, doi: 10.1109/JRFID.2021.3122233. Article 4.-: J. L. Gomez-Tornero, A. Gil-Martinez, M. Poveda-Garcia and D. Cañete-Rebenaque, ARIEL: Passive Beam-Scanning Antenna TeRminal for Iridiscent and E cient LEO Satellite Connectivity in IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, doi: 10.1109/LAWP.2022.3193040.Escuela Internacional de Doctorado de la Universidad PolitĂ©cnica de CartagenaUniversidad PolitĂ©cnica de CartagenaPrograma Doctorado en TecnologĂas de la InformaciĂłn y las Comunicacione
A Handheld Fine-Grained RFID Localization System with Complex-Controlled Polarization
There is much interest in fine-grained RFID localization systems. Existing
systems for accurate localization typically require infrastructure, either in
the form of extensive reference tags or many antennas (e.g., antenna arrays) to
localize RFID tags within their radio range. Yet, there remains a need for
fine-grained RFID localization solutions that are in a compact, portable,
mobile form, that can be held by users as they walk around areas to map them,
such as in retail stores, warehouses, or manufacturing plants.
We present the design, implementation, and evaluation of POLAR, a portable
handheld system for fine-grained RFID localization. Our design introduces two
key innovations that enable robust, accurate, and real-time localization of
RFID tags. The first is complex-controlled polarization (CCP), a mechanism for
localizing RFIDs at all orientations through software-controlled polarization
of two linearly polarized antennas. The second is joint tag discovery and
localization (JTDL), a method for simultaneously localizing and reading tags
with zero-overhead regardless of tag orientation. Building on these two
techniques, we develop an end-to-end handheld system that addresses a number of
practical challenges in self-interference, efficient inventorying, and
self-localization. Our evaluation demonstrates that POLAR achieves a median
accuracy of a few centimeters in each of the x/y/z dimensions in practical
indoor environments
Array signal processing for source localization and enhancement
“A common approach to the wide-band microphone array problem is to assume a certain array geometry and then design optimal weights (often in subbands) to meet a set of desired criteria. In addition to weights, we consider the geometry of the microphone arrangement to be part of the optimization problem. Our approach is to use particle swarm optimization (PSO) to search for the optimal geometry while using an optimal weight design to design the weights for each particle’s geometry. The resulting directivity indices (DI’s) and white noise SNR gains (WNG’s) form the basis of the PSO’s fitness function. Another important consideration in the optimal weight design are several regularization parameters. By including those parameters in the particles, we optimize their values as well in the operation of the PSO. The proposed method allows the user great flexibility in specifying desired DI’s and WNG’s over frequency by virtue of the PSO fitness function.
Although the above method discusses beam and nulls steering for fixed locations, in real time scenarios, it requires us to estimate the source positions to steer the beam position adaptively. We also investigate source localization of sound and RF sources using machine learning techniques. As for the RF source localization, we consider radio frequency identification (RFID) antenna tags. Using a planar RFID antenna array with beam steering capability and using received signal strength indicator (RSSI) value captured for each beam position, the position of each RFID antenna tag is estimated. The proposed approach is also shown to perform well under various challenging scenarios”--Abstract, page iv
Twins:Device-free Object Tracking using Passive Tags
Without requiring objects to carry any transceiver, device-free based object
tracking provides a promising solution for many localization and tracking
systems to monitor non-cooperative objects such as intruders. However, existing
device-free solutions mainly use sensors and active RFID tags, which are much
more expensive compared to passive tags. In this paper, we propose a novel
motion detection and tracking method using passive RFID tags, named Twins. The
method leverages a newly observed phenomenon called critical state caused by
interference among passive tags. We contribute to both theory and practice of
such phenomenon by presenting a new interference model that perfectly explains
this phenomenon and using extensive experiments to validate it. We design a
practical Twins based intrusion detection scheme and implement a real prototype
with commercial off-the-shelf reader and tags. The results show that Twins is
effective in detecting the moving object, with low location error of 0.75m in
average
An IoT-Aware Smart System Exploiting the Electromagnetic Behavior of UHF-RFID Tags to Improve Worker Safety in Outdoor Environments
Recently, different solutions leveraging Internet of Things (IoT) technologies have been adopted to avoid accidents in agricultural working environments. As an example, heavy vehicles, e.g., tractors or excavators, have been upgraded with remote controls. Nonetheless, the community continues to encourage discussions on safety issues. In this framework, a localization system installed on remote-controlled farm machines (RCFM) can help in preventing fatal accidents and reduce collision risks. This paper presents an innovative system that exploits passive UHF-RFID technology supported by commercial BLE Beacons for monitoring and preventing accidents that may occur when ground-workers in RCFM collaborate in outdoor agricultural working areas. To this aim, a modular architecture is proposed to locate workers, obstacles and machines and guarantees the security of RCFM movements by using specific notifications for ground-workers prompt interventions. Its main characteristics are presented with its main positioning features based on passive UHF-RFID technology. An experimental campaign discusses its performance and determines the best configuration of the UHF-RFID tags installed on workers and obstacles. Finally, system validation demonstrates the reliability of the main components and the usefulness of the proposed architecture for worker safety
Co-Design Strategies for Energy-Efficient UWB and UHF Wireless Systems
This paper reviews the most recent methods, combining nonlinear harmonic-balance-based analysis with electromagnetic (EM) simulation, for optimizing, at the circuit level, modern radiative RF/microwave systems. In order to maximize the system efficiency, each subsystem must be designed layoutwise, accounting for the presence of the others, that is, accounting for its actual terminations, rather than the ideal ones (50 Ω). In this way, the twofold goal of minimizing size and losses of the system is obtained by reducing intersystem matching networks. Indeed, terminations are complex, frequency-dispersive, and variable with the signal level, if active operations are concerned, and are responsible for performance degradation if not properly optimized. This approach is nowadays necessary, given the ever increased spread of pervasively distributed RF microsystems adopting miniaturized antennas, such as radio frequency identification (RFID) or wireless sensor networks, that must be low-cost, low-profile, low-power, and must simultaneously perform localization, identification, and sensing. For the design of a transmitter and a receiver connected with the respective antennas, suitable figures of merit are considered, encompassing radiation and nonlinear performance. Recent representative low-profile realizations, adopting ultra-wideband (UWB) excitations are used to highlight the benefit of the proposed nonlinear/EM approach for next generation energy autonomous microsystem, such as UWB-RFID tags
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