Computers and Electrical Engineering 63 (2017) 91–98
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Computers and Electrical Engineering
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compeleceng
An anti-collision algorithm for RFID-based robots based on
dynamic grouping binary trees
Yin Zhang, Fan Yang, Qian Wang
∗
, Qianlin He, JiaCheng Li, Yue Yang
School of Information and Safety Engineering, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan 430073, P.R. China
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 30 October 2016
Revised 6 March 2017
Accepted 7 March 2017
Available online 14 March 2017
Keywords:
RFID-based robots
Anti-collision
Query tree
Dynamic grouping mechanism
a b s t r a c t
This paper investigates the conventional algorithms for addressing the issue of tag collision
in radio-frequency identification (RFID) systems. To improve the efficiency of RFID reader
inquiry, this paper proposes an approach based on dynamic grouping binary trees, named
DGBT, for RFID-based robots. Through DGBT, the collision probability and query times of
RFID readers are lowered by adaptive anti-collision prefixes, the efficiency of RFID identifi-
cation is improved via the group-based approach, and the binary-tree-based queries within
groups are ensured to be stable, flexible, effective and practicable. Analysis and simulation
verify that the query times and throughput rate are significantly improved by DGBT.
©2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1.
Introduction
With the development of electronics, sensors, automation and other techniques, mobile robots have reached high levels
of performance in terms of real-time application, accuracy, robustness and compatibility [1] . However, the indoor localization
of mobile robots is a challenging and active subject of study because of the complexity of indoor scenarios, the diversity of
technologies involved, and the influence of commercial and industrial interests [2] . Although the Global Positioning System
(GPS) is a widely accepted solution for outdoor operation, its accuracy is very limited when operating indoors because of
limited satellite reception [3] .
Over the past few years, a new kind of mobile robot that uses radio-frequency identification (RFID) for localization has
received considerable attention because such a system is low in cost, virtually maintenance free and reliable in many harsh
environments [4–6] . In many cases, a localization system of this kind is realized by installing a reader on the robot and dis-
tributing a certain number of tags in known positions throughout the environment [7] . The integration of robots with RFID
readers in this way is one of the most efficient approaches in terms of indoor space resolution [8] . Miah and Gueaieb [9] pro-
posed an RFID-based approach for mobile robot trajectory tracking and point stabilization through on-line neighboring op-
timal control. DiGiampaolo and Martinelli [10] addressed a global localization problem for a mobile robot that is able to
detect the presence of passive RFID tags located in known positions on the ceiling of an environment when traveling below
them. In [11] , a shared control architecture combining a brain–machine interface with RFID technology was proposed for
controlling a robot arm during pick-and-place operations.
However, RFID systems face considerable challenges when attempts to identify multiple tags simultaneously result in
collisions among the tag responses to the reader’s query, which significantly lower the efficiency of the system [12] .
Therefore, anti-collision algorithms have been proposed to solve the RFID tag collision problem, including space-division
∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: qianwang@zuel.edu.cn (Q. Wang).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compeleceng.2017.03.003
0045-7906/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.