A novel RF symmetric double sided two way range finder based on Vernier effect

Recently, study on RF ranging technique has actively been carried out to realize a sensor network system or a localization system. Among such studies, a major portion of researches have been adopting the received signal strength (RSS) as a main measurement method; however, such a measurement method has some limitation and problem in the aspect of performance as well as efficiency. Furthermore, even if there are some investigations on short-range wireless sensor network using time-of-flight of RF, it has difficulties and complexities to realize as well; that is, it needs a specific technique to handle communication packet structure in the aspect of signal processing, and require a little more complicated source of RF signal, e.g., an impulse radio (IR) ultra-wideband (UWB) and chirp spread spectrum (CSS). Therefore, it would be of great interest to investigate for making a RF range system with better performance and simple structure. In this report, we propose an epoch-making technique using SDS-TWR on wireless range measurement in order to realize remarkable wireless range finder with overcoming such problematic points of existing systems and techniques. In addition, we present an easily applicable new signal processing method based on Vernier effect in order to overcome several issues due to the properties of hardware system; such as, the process speed of MCU, a narrow bandwidth of RF signal, and so on.