Distributed Wireless Monitoring in Oil&Gas Plants Through Mobile UAV-UGV RFID Platforms

Autonomous vehicles (e.g., UAVs and UGVs) combined with wireless communication systems can improve the efficiency and security of industrial plants. In this paper, we present an experimental characterization of the link’s reliability between a moving interrogation platform exploiting the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and sensor nodes distributed in a challenging environment like an industrial Oil&Gas site. By selecting adequate antennas and scanners’ paths, a stable link, with a probability higher than 90% to read all the nodes with at least 5 readings, can be achieved despite of the multiple reflections due to metallic infrastructures. Furthermore, the proposed architecture is lightweight, with a trifling power consumption and thus suitable to be integrated into drones and rovers.