RFID-based navigation of autonomous patient vehicle for hospital management

摘要

In recent years, there has been great interest in the emerging field of human assistive devices. Changing lifestyle and demography are two major factors demanding quality healthcare for the Indian population, and technological intervention is the need of the hour. Precise localisation techniques have been the interest of study for decades. Various navigation techniques like global positioning system (GPS), infra red techniques (IR), etc., have been developed. Radio frequency-based localisation technology, RFID, is being used for the precise location inside buildings and operates without line of sight. It uses contactless RFID tags and readers for data transfer. ARDUINO-UNO open system hardware is used to support microcontroller. Using RFID, patient vehicle can be guided remotely and programmed to reach its destination by viewing the stored map. Also, RFID can be used to tag hospital assets and equipment to increase their visibility. Hospital administration will be immensely benefited with such assistive device, as they will not have to depend on extra caretakers.