Fast Localization and Sensing with Passive Backscattering IoT Devices

This paper presents an autonomous network of Internet of Things (IoT) battery-free devices for environmental monitoring activities based on Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) communications at Ultra High-Frequency (UHF) band. A mobile robot enables continuous and automated communication with passive RFID sensor tags, collects useful data by accessing sensor data, and calculates accurate tag location thanks to a fast synthetic aperture phase-based localization algorithm, reliable with respect to both multipath and channel fading. The proposed architecture efficiently obtains a digital twin of the monitored area (e.g., a large warehouse or store). A working prototype that demonstrates the proposed system is also presented.