An efficient coverage in wireless sensor networks using fuzzy logic-based control for the mobile node movement

Abstract

In large scale Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), the random deployment of the sensor nodes does not guarantee the desired level of the area coverage especially when the network is sparse. One of the solutions to overcome this problem is to use a mobile robot that is equipped with, in addition to the sensing unit, an actuator unit that controls its movement. In this case, the mobile robot is considered as a mobile sensor node that has the capability to monitor the uncovered regions in the sensor field. However, the main challenge in this case is how to control the movement of the mobile robot such that the area coverage is maximized and the time required to sample the uncovered regions is minimized. In this paper, we propose a fuzzy logic-based approach that controls the mobile robot movement in the sensor field in order to maximize the area coverage. The inputs of the fuzzy system determine the next point that the mobile node will select when it moves in the sensor field. Simulation results have shown that the proposed approach outperforms the random and standard moving patterns.