An Integrated MAV-RFID System for Geo-referenced Monitoring of Harsh Environments

Abstract

Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) equipped with lightweight Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) sensor dataloggers, have the potential to assist in achieving environmental awareness in a large range of situations. However, in order to gain such insight, the system must be able to accurately localize itself and fuse any readings of its surroundings into a consistent map. In this paper we demonstrate how camera, IMU and environmental data obtained with an RFID-enabled temperature sensor may be merged together to create accurate 3D maps along the MAV curvilinear trajectories in unknown locations. The idea is demonstrated through experimentations in both indoor and outdoor harsh environments.