Reliable multiple robot-assisted sensor relocation using multi-objective optimization

摘要

Wireless sensor networks provide a way to monitor a region of interest. Incorporating a robot into the sensor network provides a basis for other types of functionality to be added. One possibility is the replacement of damaged sensors with excess sensors within the wireless sensor network. This scenario has been defined as the “Robot-Assisted ¡Sensor Relocation” (RASR) problem and focused only on minimizing the length of the trajectory taken by the robot. RASR has been recently expanded on as a multi-objective optimization (MOO) problem to examine a more realistic scenario by considering the reliability and placement location of the passive sensors used for replacement; this new problem is termed “Reliable Robot-Assisted Sensor Relocation (RRASR). In this paper, the possibility of multiple robots servicing the sensor network is considered and the RRASR problem formulation is modified accordingly. In addition, load balancing of robots by adding an objective function to the MOO representation is included. We refer to this multi-robot version as Reliable Multiple Robot-Assisted Sensor Relocation. The performance of six state-of-the-art evolutionary MOO algorithms using sensor networks of varying sizes and inflicted damage levels is examined.