A SAR-Based Measurement Method for Passive-Tag Positioning With a Flying UHF-RFID Reader

This paper presents and characterizes a measurement method for positioning of passive tags, by a drone equipped with a UHF-RFID reader. The method is based on a synthetic aperture radar approach and exploits the knowledge of the reader/drone trajectory, which is achieved with a differential Global Navigation Satellite System. Different sources of measurement uncertainty are analyzed by means of numerical simulations and experimental results. The method capabilities are discussed versus the length and shape of the reader trajectory. Finally, the proposed localization method is validated through an experimental analysis carried out with commercial RFID hardware and a microclass unmanned aerial vehicle.