Robotic Wireless Sensor Networks

In this chapter, we present a literature survey of an emerging, cutting-edge, and multi-disciplinary field of research at the intersection of Robotics and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) which we refer to as Robotic Wireless Sensor Networks (RWSN). We define a RWSN as an autonomous networked multi-robot system that aims to achieve certain sensing goals while meeting and maintaining certain communication performance requirements, through cooperative control, learning and adaptation. While both of the component areas, i.e., Robotics and WSN, are very well-known and well-explored, there exist a whole set of new opportunities and research directions at the intersection of these two fields which are relatively or even completely unexplored. One such example would be the use of a set of robotic routers to set up a temporary communication path between a sender and a receiver that uses the controlled mobility to the advantage of packet routing. We find that there exist only a limited number of articles to be directly categorized as RWSN related works whereas there exist a range of articles in the robotics and the WSN literature that are also relevant to this new field of research. To connect the dots, we first identify the core problems and research trends related to RWSN such as connectivity, localization, routing, and robust flow of information. Next, we classify the existing research on RWSN as well as the relevant state-of-the-arts from robotics and WSN community according to the problems and trends identified in the first step. Lastly, we analyze what is missing in the existing literature, and identify topics that require more research attention in the future

Collaborative Trajectory Planning and Resource Allocation for Multi-Target Tracking in Airborne Radar Networks under Spectral Coexistence

This paper develops a collaborative trajectory planning and resource allocation (CTPRA) strategy for multi-target tracking (MTT) in a spectral coexistence environment utilizing airborne radar networks. The key mechanism of the proposed strategy is to jointly design the flight trajectory and optimize the radar assignment, transmit power, dwell time, and signal effective bandwidth allocation of multiple airborne radars, aiming to enhance the MTT performance under the constraints of the tolerable threshold of interference energy, platform kinematic limitations, and given illumination resource budgets. The closed-form expression for the Bayesian Cramér–Rao lower bound (BCRLB) under the consideration of spectral coexistence is calculated and adopted as the optimization criterion of the CTPRA strategy. It is shown that the formulated CTPRA problem is a mixed-integer programming, non-linear, non-convex optimization model owing to its highly coupled Boolean and continuous parameters. By incorporating semi-definite programming (SDP), particle swarm optimization (PSO), and the cyclic minimization technique, an iterative four-stage solution methodology is proposed to tackle the formulated optimization problem efficiently. The numerical results validate the effectiveness and the MTT performance improvement of the proposed CTPRA strategy in comparison with other benchmarks

Wearable Communications in 5G: Challenges and Enabling Technologies

As wearable devices become more ingrained in our daily lives, traditional communication networks primarily designed for human being-oriented applications are facing tremendous challenges. The upcoming 5G wireless system aims to support unprecedented high capacity, low latency, and massive connectivity. In this article, we evaluate key challenges in wearable communications. A cloud/edge communication architecture that integrates the cloud radio access network, software defined network, device to device communications, and cloud/edge technologies is presented. Computation offloading enabled by this multi-layer communications architecture can offload computation-excessive and latency-stringent applications to nearby devices through device to device communications or to nearby edge nodes through cellular or other wireless technologies. Critical issues faced by wearable communications such as short battery life, limited computing capability, and stringent latency can be greatly alleviated by this cloud/edge architecture. Together with the presented architecture, current transmission and networking technologies, including non-orthogonal multiple access, mobile edge computing, and energy harvesting, can greatly enhance the performance of wearable communication in terms of spectral efficiency, energy efficiency, latency, and connectivity.Comment: This work has been accepted by IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazin

Optimal Tracking Performance of MIMO Discrete-Time Systems with Network Parameters

The optimal regulation properties of multi-input and multioutput (MIMO) discrete-time networked control systems (NCSs), over additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) fading channels, based on state space representation, are investigated. The average performance index is introduced. Moreover, the regulation performance is measured by the control energy and the error energy of the system, and fundamental limitations are obtained. Two kinds of network parameters, fading and the additive white Gaussian noise, are considered. The best attainable regulation performance limitations can be obtained by the limiting steady state solution of the corresponding algebraic Riccati equation (ARE). The simulation results are given to demonstrate the main results of the theoretical development

Airborne Directional Networking: Topology Control Protocol Design

This research identifies and evaluates the impact of several architectural design choices in relation to airborne networking in contested environments related to autonomous topology control. Using simulation, we evaluate topology reconfiguration effectiveness using classical performance metrics for different point-to-point communication architectures. Our attention is focused on the design choices which have the greatest impact on reliability, scalability, and performance. In this work, we discuss the impact of several practical considerations of airborne networking in contested environments related to autonomous topology control modeling. Using simulation, we derive multiple classical performance metrics to evaluate topology reconfiguration effectiveness for different point-to-point communication architecture attributes for the purpose of qualifying protocol design elements