Autonomous Vehicle Navigation and Communication by Radio Frequency Identity Tags

This thesis finds the feasibility of using Radio-Frequency Identity tags for current Autonomous Vehicle limitations such as camera occlusions, traffic-sign tempering, and spotty GPS. Experiments were conducted with an AV on a test track up to 90 km/h with in various propagation mediums such as Snow. Higher speeds could not be tried due to track constraints. The study finds how to increase the coverage area and read range of the tags. The Active tags performed better than their Passive counterparts, however at the expense of high cost and battery replacement. Mass production and Piezoelectric technology may be able to help with it, respectively. The study found that the technology in its current form is suitable for controlled environments only. However, if more Passive antennas and readers are experimented with, and more equipment is developed while keeping AV use-case in mind, it can show promise against the current AV limitations.