New Long-Range RFID Technology Helps Robots Find Household Objects

HizookRobotics writes Georgia Tech researchers announced a new way robots can "sense" their surroundings through the use of small ultra-high frequency radio-frequency identification (UHF RFID) tags. Inexpensive self-adhesive tags can be stuck on objects, allowing an RFID-equipped robot to search a room for the correct tag's signal, even when the object is hidden out of sight. Once the tag is detected, the robot knows the object it's trying to find isn't far away. The researchers' methods, summarized over at IEEE: "The robot goes to the spot where it got the hottest signal from the tag it was looking for, zeroing in on it based on the signal strength that its shoulder antennas are picking up: if the right antenna is getting a stronger signal, the robot yaws right, and vice versa."

Comments

i can see the procedural now

[fermion]

Person is dead, with a big hole in his stomach. No one around who could have done it, the prime suspect has an alibi, having been no where near the place in months. The only suspicious items are a half eaten box of cookies that came in the mail, and a missing robot.

Put one on the dog's collar.

[I'm New Around Here]

Especially if you have one of those fidgety types that run from everything.

That robot will be so confused.

"I swear it was around here somewhere. Not it is way over to the left."

I just want the detector ...

[oneiros27]

A little tri-corder like device that could help me find my security badge in my house.

If they have stickers I could put on other things, too, even better.

Re:I just want the detector ...

[jeffmeden]

A little tri-corder like device that could help me find my security badge in my house.

If they have stickers I could put on other things, too, even better.

You already have one, it's called a recent smartphone. Stick-on tags? here you go: https://www.sticknfind.com/

Potentially very useful

[mandark1967]

I work at a large organization where we have several thousand computers, most with dual monitors and other peripherals.

It would be very beneficial if this technology allowed us to perform our yearly inventories by simply walking through each room carrying a tablet or laptop which recorded the devices present in each room.

We could then see, easily, if any equipment (like secondary monitors) were moved from room to room without permission.