An Efficient Multiple Object Tracking Method with Mobile RFID Readers

RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology originally is designed for object identification. Due to its relatively low cost and easy deployment, RFID technology becomes a popular approach for tracking the positions of objects. Many researchers proposed variant object tracking algorithms to quickly locate objects. Although these algorithms are efficient for certain applications, their tracking methods are limited on multiple objects with fixed RFID readers or single object with mobile RFID readers. None of them focus on tracking multiple objects with mobile RFID readers. To bridge this gap, this study develops an efficient multiple object tracking method with mobile RFID readers. First, the omni-directional antenna in a mobile RFID reader is used to judge the annular regions at which objects locate by adjusting the reader’s reading range. Second, the directional antenna in the mobile RFID reader is used to judge the circular sectors of objects according to the received signal strengths in each direction. Third, four picking strategies are proposed to decide whether an object is picked in current step or later step. Finally, the simulated annealing algorithm is performed for all objects in the list of current step to generate the picking sequence with shortest distance. The experiments show that the proposed tracking method can help users find multiple objects in shortest distance.