Portable positioning and navigation system

A navigation system, the navigation system comprising:

• a plurality of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags positioned throughout an area to be traversed;
• at least one portal terminal located near an entrance to the area to be traversed, the at least one portal terminal adapted to upload a map of the area to be traversed, the map including the location of each RFID tag;
• and
• at least one navigation device adapted to download the map from the at least one portal terminal, the at least one navigational device adapted to display its location in the area to be traversed based in part on the detection of one or more of the plurality of RFID tags and an inertial measurement unit (IMU), wherein the IMU is operable to provide position information in areas not covered by an RFID tag and predict the location of the navigation device based on past movement and past sensed RFID tags.

A navigation device comprising:

• a map location module adapted to download a map of an area to be traversed that includes the location of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags placed within the area to be traversed, the map location module further adapted to determine a location within the area to be traversed;
• an antenna in communication with the map location module adapted to sense the signals from the RFID tags, wherein the map location model determines a location within the map based at least in part on the signals from the RFID tags sensed by the antenna;
• an inertia measurement unit (IMU) in communication with the map location module to provide further information regarding location to the map location module, wherein the further information comprises:
• position information when the navigation device is not within the coverage area of an RFID tag;
• and
• predictions of the location of the navigation device based on past movement determined by the IMU and past sensed RFID tags;
• and
• a display in communication with the map location module to display location information.