Smart floor with learning capability for mobile robot system

Abstract

In this chapter, we suggest a new information space concept called smart floor. It is the floor storage of specific information designed for route guidance of a mobile robot. A mobile robot can reach its goal position using the information saved in smart floor as well as automatically update the information for a changing environment. We constructed smart floor using RFID tag packaging and fabricated a mobile robot mounted with a passive RFID tag in ultra high frequency (UHF) bandwidth. The passive RFID tag is inexpensive and does not require a power supply. The primary information stored in smart floor is direction-values and Q-values. These values are the resultant Q-learning method that is employed to guide a mobile robot form an arbitrary position to the goal position. This research will contribute to the development of various applications such as mobile robot applications. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.