Inexpensive, reliable and localization-free navigation using an RFID floor

Stigmergy is a principle observed in nature, in which animals store in the environment information to be used for communication or navigation. Stigmergy has recently been exploited in robotics: simple robots store a goal distance field in read-write RFID tags embedded in the floor, and later follow the gradient of this field to navigate optimally to that goal. Stigmergic navigation is localization-free, since robots only rely on the values read from the tags and do not need to know their own location. This makes navigation inexpensive (no ranging sensors) and reliable (no localization failures). To make this approach viable in practice, two issues need to be addressed: how to simplify the installation of an RFID floor; and how to follow the field gradient in a reliable way. This paper presents solutions to both problems. The solutions are validated through experiments performed on simulated and on real robots.