1,023 research outputs found
Movement-Efficient Sensor Deployment in Wireless Sensor Networks With Limited Communication Range.
We study a mobile wireless sensor network (MWSN) consisting of multiple
mobile sensors or robots. Three key factors in MWSNs, sensing quality, energy
consumption, and connectivity, have attracted plenty of attention, but the
interaction of these factors is not well studied. To take all the three factors
into consideration, we model the sensor deployment problem as a constrained
source coding problem. %, which can be applied to different coverage tasks,
such as area coverage, target coverage, and barrier coverage. Our goal is to
find an optimal sensor deployment (or relocation) to optimize the sensing
quality with a limited communication range and a specific network lifetime
constraint. We derive necessary conditions for the optimal sensor deployment in
both homogeneous and heterogeneous MWSNs. According to our derivation, some
sensors are idle in the optimal deployment of heterogeneous MWSNs. Using these
necessary conditions, we design both centralized and distributed algorithms to
provide a flexible and explicit trade-off between sensing uncertainty and
network lifetime. The proposed algorithms are successfully extended to more
applications, such as area coverage and target coverage, via properly selected
density functions. Simulation results show that our algorithms outperform the
existing relocation algorithms
Supporting UAVs with Edge Computing: A Review of Opportunities and Challenges
Over the last years, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have seen significant
advancements in sensor capabilities and computational abilities, allowing for
efficient autonomous navigation and visual tracking applications. However, the
demand for computationally complex tasks has increased faster than advances in
battery technology. This opens up possibilities for improvements using edge
computing. In edge computing, edge servers can achieve lower latency responses
compared to traditional cloud servers through strategic geographic deployments.
Furthermore, these servers can maintain superior computational performance
compared to UAVs, as they are not limited by battery constraints. Combining
these technologies by aiding UAVs with edge servers, research finds measurable
improvements in task completion speed, energy efficiency, and reliability
across multiple applications and industries. This systematic literature review
aims to analyze the current state of research and collect, select, and extract
the key areas where UAV activities can be supported and improved through edge
computing
Efficient Mission Planning for Robot Networks in Communication Constrained Environments
Many robotic systems are remotely operated nowadays that require uninterrupted connection and safe mission planning. Such systems are commonly found in military drones, search and rescue operations, mining robotics, agriculture, and environmental monitoring. Different robotic systems may employ disparate communication modalities such as radio network, visible light communication, satellite, infrared, Wi-Fi. However, in an autonomous mission where the robots are expected to be interconnected, communication constrained environment frequently arises due to the out of range problem or unavailability of the signal. Furthermore, several automated projects (building construction, assembly line) do not guarantee uninterrupted communication, and a safe project plan is required that optimizes collision risks, cost, and duration. In this thesis, we propose four pronged approaches to alleviate some of these issues: 1) Communication aware world mapping; 2) Communication preserving using the Line-of-Sight (LoS); 3) Communication aware safe planning; and 4) Multi-Objective motion planning for navigation.
First, we focus on developing a communication aware world map that integrates traditional world models with the planning of multi-robot placement. Our proposed communication map selects the optimal placement of a chain of intermediate relay vehicles in order to maximize communication quality to a remote unit. We also vi propose an algorithm to build a min-Arborescence tree when there are multiple remote units to be served. Second, in communication denied environments, we use Line-of-Sight (LoS) to establish communication between mobile robots, control their movements and relay information to other autonomous units. We formulate and study the complexity of a multi-robot relay network positioning problem and propose approximation algorithms that restore visibility based connectivity through the relocation of one or more robots. Third, we develop a framework to quantify the safety score of a fully automated robotic mission where the coexistence of human and robot may pose a collision risk. A number of alternate mission plans are analyzed using motion planning algorithms to select the safest one. Finally, an efficient multi-objective optimization based path planning for the robots is developed to deal with several Pareto optimal cost attributes
LOCALIZED MOVEMENT CONTROL CONNECTIVITY RESTORATION ALGORITHMS FOR WIRELESS SENSOR AND ACTOR NETWORKS
Wireless Sensor and Actor Networks (WSANs) are gaining an increased interest
because of their suitability for mission-critical applications that require autonomous
and intelligent interaction with the environment. Hazardous application environments
such as forest fire monitoring, disaster management, search and rescue, homeland
security, battlefield reconnaissance, etc. make actors susceptible to physical damage.
Failure of a critical (i.e. cut-vertex) actor partitions the inter-actor network into
disjointed segments while leaving a coverage hole. Maintaining inter-actor
connectivity is extremely important in mission-critical applications of WSANs where
actors have to quickly plan an optimal coordinated response to detected events. Some
proactive approaches pursued in the literature deploy redundant nodes to provide fault
tolerance; however, this necessitates a large actor count that leads to higher cost and
becomes impractical. On the other hand, the harsh environment strictly prohibits an
external intervention to replace a failed node. Meanwhile, reactive approaches might
not be suitable for time-sensitive applications. The autonomous and unattended nature
of WSANs necessitates a self-healing and agile recovery process that involves
existing actors to mend the severed inter-actor connectivity by reconfiguring the
topology. Moreover, though the possibility of simultaneous multiple actor failure is
rare, it may be precipitated by a hostile environment and disastrous events. With only
localized information, recovery from such failures is extremely challenging.
Furthermore, some applications may impose application-level constraints while
recovering from a node failure.
In this dissertation, we address the challenging connectivity restoration problem while
maintaining minimal network state information. We have exploited the controlled
movement of existing (internal) actors to restore the lost connectivity while
minimizing the impact on coverage. We have pursued distributed greedy heuristics.
This dissertation presents four novel approaches for recovering from node failure. In
the first approach, volunteer actors exploit their partially utilized transmission power
and reposition themselves in such a way that the connectivity is restored. The second
approach identifies critical actors in advance, designates them preferably as noncritical
backup nodes that replace the failed primary if such contingency arises in the
future. In the third approach, we design a distributed algorithm that recovers from a
special case of multiple simultaneous failures. The fourth approach factors in
application-level constraints on the mobility of actors while recovering from node
failure and strives to minimize the impact of critical node failure on coverage and
connectivity. The performance of proposed approaches is analyzed and validated
through extensive simulations. Simulation results confirm the effectiveness of
proposed approaches that outperform the best contemporary schemes found in
literature
Production Engineering and Management
It is our pleasure to introduce the 8th edition of the International Conference on Production Engineering and anagement (PEM), an event that is the result of the joint effort of the OWL University of Applied Sciences and the University of Trieste. The conference has been established as an annual meeting under the Double Degree Master Program “Production Engineering and Management” by the two partner universities. This year the conference is hosted at the university campus in Lemgo, Germany.
The main goal of the conference is to offer students, researchers and professionals in Germany, Italy and abroad, an opportunity to meet and exchange information, discuss experiences, specific practices and technical solutions for planning, design, and management of manufacturing and service systems and processes. As always, the conference is a platform aimed at presenting research projects, introducing young academics to the tradition of symposiums and promoting the exchange of ideas between the industry and the academy.
This year’s special focus is on Supply Chain Design and Management in the context of Industry 4.0, which are currently major topics of discussion among experts and professionals. In fact, the features and problems of Industry 4.0 have been widely discussed in the last editions of the PEM conference, in which sustainability and efficiency also emerged as key factors. With the further study and development of Direct Digital Manufacturing
technologies in connection with new Management Practices and Supply Chain Designs, the 8th edition of the PEM conference aims to offer new and interesting scientific contributions.
The conference program includes 25 speeches organized in seven sessions. Two are specifically dedicated to “Direct Digital Manufacturing in the context of Industry 4.0”. The other sessions are covering areas of great interest and importance to the participants of the conference, which are related to the main focus: “Supply Chai n Design and Management”, “Industrial Engineering and Lean Management”, “Wood Processing Technologies and Furniture Production”, and “Management Practices and Methodologies”. The proceedings of the conference include the articles submitted and accepted after a careful double-blind refereeing process
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