Wi-Rotate: An Instantaneous Angular Speed Measurement System Using WiFi Signals

We propose the design, implementation, and evaluation of an instantaneous angular speed (IAS) measurement system, namely Wi-Rotate, using commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) WiFi hardware. Wi-Rotate exploits the Channel State Information (CSI) of WiFi signals to extract the physical characteristics of the rotation object to achieve accurate contact-free IAS measurements. Wi-Rotate contains three main components: Wi-Fresnel model, Wi-Phase model, and a combination model. Wi-Fresnel model explores the signal amplitude variation features when the rotating object cuts the Fresnel zone boundary to track target rotation. Wi-Phase model leverages signal phase variation and formalizes the problem of determining IAS as a linear programming problem. The combination model combines the IAS values obtained by Wi-Fresnel and Wi-Phase and utilizes a clustering method to further improve measurement accuracy. Comprehensive experiments are conducted to demonstrate the advantages of Wi-Rotate in terms of accuracy, sensing range, and system latency. Wi-Rotate is able to achieve real-time rotation measurements at an accuracy higher than 99% when the target is within 2 meters. Even when the target is 3 meters away, Wi-Rotate can still achieve an accuracy of 94%, demonstrating the long-range tracking capability which is critical for industrial applications.