Contextual Awareness in a WSN/RFID Fusion Navigation System

We present insight into how contextual awareness can be derived from, and improve, a fusion algorithm combing a WSN and a passive RFID for autonomous mobile robot navigation. Contextual awareness of not where the robot is, but rather the context in which it exists in relation to the environment and human user serves to improve accuracy in navigation, alters the speed of the robot, and modifies its behavior. The WSN system, using a virtual potential field, provides fast general navigation in open areas and the RFID provides precision navigation near static obstacles and in narrow areas. We verified the effectiveness of our approaches through navigational and guidance experiments.