FLIGHT COORDINATION OF SWARMS OF UAVS FOR EFFICIENT AND FLEXIBLE WSAN AND WMESH VISITATION
Abstract
There exist several situations where a geographic region of some size needs to be scanned or monitored through many sensors, but where it is either absolutely impossible or prohibitively expensive to deploy and maintain wireless communication infrastructure for the distributed sensors. Either because the region is hidden behind walls, not easily accessible, hard to get through, or because it is infected with some lethal bacteria or virus transmitter. In this case, the best is to scatter (disposable) sensors in the region and let they transmit the collected sensor data by wireless means to a overflying drone, which then physically hauls the collected data from the monitored region to a central base station that functions as a gateway to the Internet. In this solution, the bottleneck is the number of UAVs, since it may miss sensor data from the sensors in region while it is carrying data back and forth. Therefore, in situations where one needs a continuous environmental monitoring of a region with the smallest possible loss of data, it is mandatory to use a fleet of roaming UAVs which coordinate their fight trajectories and their data swap operations so as to minimize the times where sensors on the ground are left unattended. This is the contribution of the flying network (of UAVs), but the WSAN on the ground can also optimize its data routing in order to reach faster any of the overflying UAVs. Hence, based on the WSAN node’s energy reserves and the current (or "soonto- be") position of any moving data sink (the UAV data collector) the sensor network’s routing protocol can try to minimize global energy expenditure and the fastest possible flush of the collected data. With the goal of investigating the above mentioned problems, conceiving protocols and middleware services, as well as testing them through simulations and in real-world scenarios, this project is composed of two parts: the flying network component (Part I) and the ground network component (Part II).
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Aug 12, 2021
- Source ID
- FA95502010285
Entities
People
- Markus Endler
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- United States Air Force