Planning mobile sensor net deployment for navigationally-challenged sensor nodes

Abstract

This wok describes novel algorithms for planning the deployment of a large number of navigationally-challenged mobile sensor nodes in known indoor environments. Due to cost and power constraints, our mobile sensor nodes have the ability to move and communicate, but they cannot detect or avoid obstacles or localize to the environment. Additionally, they have only minimal capabilities for detecting other robot team members, through the use of a crude camera. Our deployment process, therefore, uses an assistive navigation technique that enables a more capable leader robot, equipped with a laser rangefinder and a camera, to guide several mobile sensor nodes to their deployment positions. To ensure the successful deployment of the mobile sensor nodes, we have developed an autonomous planning process that plans the positions of the sensor nodes based upon a number of constraints, including maintaining line of sight maximizing visibility coverage, avoiding placement in doorways, minimizing obstruction of corridors, and so forth. Additionally, because of the navigational constraints of simple robots following a leader to these deployment positions, our algorithm also derives two leader waypoints for each sensor position, which on strain the motion of the leader path to the deployment position. These leader