Simultaneous Detection of the Orientation and Position of Moving Objects With Simple RFID Array for Industrial IoT Applications

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) positioning promises a prospective future for industrial automation and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) applications. However, the radio waves carry multiple parameters, including position, orientation, and ambient environment factors, which raises challenges in simultaneous detection of position and orientation of product objects. This investigation proposes a simple RFID array-based position and orientation simultaneous detection technique for moving object in industrial chain. The main contributions of this investigation include: 1) theoretical analysis and integrated model of position and orientation variation with the antenna parameters and interrogation variables in RF backscatter coupling-based sensing; 2) development of an innovative simple RFID array-based phase separation technique with differential sensing, which determines the position- and orientation-induced phase without their mutual coupling impact; and 3) proposal of a simultaneous detection technique for moving objects’ position and orientation by integrating the multiple signal classification (MUSIC) algorithm and hyperbolic positioning algorithm. In the experimental verification with a range from −75 to 75 cm, the average error of position and orientation estimation is 4.29 cm and 4.89°.