Localization of passive UHF RFID Labels with Kalman Filter

Abstract. Localization via Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is frequently used in different applications nowadays. It has the advantage that next to its ostensible purpose of identifying objects via their unique IDs it can simultaneously be used for the localization of these objects. In this work it is shown how Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) measurements at different antennae of a passive UHF RFID label can be combined for localization. The localization is only done based on the RSSI measurements and a Kalman Filter (KF). Because of non-linearities in the measurement function it is necessary to incorporate an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) or an Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) where simulations have shown that the UKF performs better than the EKF. Additionally to the selection of the filter there are different possibilities to increase the localization accuracy of the UKF: The advantages of using Reference Tags (RT) or more than one tag per trolley (relative positioning) in combination with an Unscented Kalman Filter are discussed and simulations results show that the localization error can be decreased significantly via these methods. Another possibility to increase the localization accuracy and in addition to achieve a more realistic simulation is the consideration of the angle between reader antenna and tag. Simulation results with the incorporation of different numbers of fixed antennae lead to the conclusion that this is a useful surplus in the localization.