Towards Real-Time Fine-Grained Tracking in Distributed Large-Scale RF Tag Systems

一个可扩展的无线系统可以连续、准确和同时跟踪多个人的动作并检测他们的细微身体动作，这将使许多新的现实生活应用程序的开发成为可能，例如诊断运动障碍、持续监测儿童的行为，以及实时提醒老年跌倒的照顾者。本项目的目标是利用基于射频标签的无线传感技术来设计和实现这样一个无线跟踪系统。密歇根州立大学的一组研究人员将通过在信号处理、数学建模、算法和协议设计、机器学习、优化、雷达设计和谐波标签制造方面的创新，解决理论和实验方面的根本挑战。无线跟踪系统将使监测养老院老年居民的活动成为可能，同时保护他们的隐私，预测和防止他们可能摔倒，并引导他们进行医生建议的锻炼。它还将能够以非侵入性的方式持续监测儿童的行为和活动，使其能够对儿童的身体和智力发展进行数据驱动的研究。研究结果将广泛传播给研究社区，以重现研究结果，并将制作教育材料，以丰富学生的学习经验。本项目旨在设计并实现一种覆盖范围大、分布式感知、读写器间协同、多标签同时跟踪、高分辨率的可扩展无线标签跟踪系统。它包括三个相辅相成的研究推进。第一个推力将通过协调和同步位置分布式射频(RF)读取器来为大规模标签跟踪系统开发细粒度跟踪解决方案，以实现精确定位。它将开发新的技术，通过优化信号处理算法、读卡器间通信和协调协议、标签调度和资源分配，最大限度地提高标签跟踪的时间分辨率。第二个推力将开发能够实现同时多标签跟踪的技术，类似于蜂窝网络中的多用户MIMO(多输入多输出)的想法。它将显著提高标签跟踪的时间分辨率，特别是在标签密集的场景中。第三个推力将集中在使用窄带谐波标签和微多普勒雷达的运动跟踪上。它将推进用于频率选择性多标签操作的谐波射频标签和雷达的设计和制造，并探索谐波标签在跟踪应用中的性能限制。此外，该项目包括系统实施和实验评估的强大组成部分，最终目标是展示其在现实生活中的应用。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

A scalable wireless system that can continuously, accurately, and simultaneously track multiple people's movements and detect their fine-grained body motions will enable the development of many novel real-life applications, such as diagnosing movement disorders, continuously monitoring children's behaviors, and alerting caregivers of elderly falls in real time. The objective of this project is to design and implement such a wireless tracking system by employing radio frequency (RF) tag based wireless sensing technology. A team of researchers from Michigan State University will address the fundamental challenges in both theory and experiments through innovations in signal processing, mathematical modeling, algorithm and protocol design, machine learning, optimization, radar design, and harmonic tag fabrication. The wireless tracking system will make it possible to monitor the activities of elderly residents in nursing homes while preserving their privacy, predict and prevent their possible falls, and guide them to perform doctor-suggested exercises. It will also enable the continuous monitoring of children’s behaviors and activities in a non-invasive manner, making it possible to conduct data-driven studies of children’s physical and mental development. The research findings will be broadly disseminated to research community for reproducibility of results, and educational materials will be created to enrich students’ learning experience. This project aims to design and implement a scalable wireless tag tracking system that features large coverage area, distributed sensing, inter-reader coordination, simultaneous multi-tag tracking, and high resolution in time. It comprises three complementary research thrusts. The first thrust will develop fine-grained tracking solutions for a large-scale tag tracking system by coordinating and synchronizing location-distributed radio frequency (RF) readers for precise localization. It will develop new techniques to maximize the time resolution of tag tracking through optimizing signal processing algorithms, inter-reader communication and coordination protocols, tag scheduling, and resource allocation. The second thrust will develop techniques to enable simultaneous multi-tag tracking similar to the idea of multi-user MIMO (multiple-input and multiple-output) in cellular networks. It will significantly improve the time resolution of tag tracking, especially in tag-dense scenarios. The third thrust will focus on motion tracking using narrowband harmonic tags and micro-Doppler radar. It will advance the design and fabrication of harmonic RF tags and radars for frequency-selective multi-tag operations, and explore the performance limits of harmonic tags in tracking applications. In addition, this project includes a strong component of system implementation and experimental evaluation, with the ultimate goal of demonstrating its real-life applications.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.