Combination of RFID and vision for patrol robot navigation and localization

This paper presents a navigation and localization method for substation patrol robot using RFID and vision. Firstly, the robot is localized globally by the RFID tags which are laid at critical junction of the road, and navigated by the edges of the road. Secondly, the artificial landmark is recognized by vision, and the distance between robot and landmark is computed to locate the robot precisely and the accumulated error of odometer is eliminated. Finally, the robot is guided by the navigation orders provided by RFID tags to turn left, turn right, go forward, photo automatically, etc. Experimental results show that the proposed method can realize the localization and navigation of robots in substation environment, and the equipment setup is very simple and cheap; so it would be useful for real-world robotic applications such as factory, hospital, security inspection, and tourism environment.