Actor coordination using info-gap decision theory in wireless sensor and actor networks

Mobile, unmanned, power and resource-rich devices, called actors, deployed within a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) application area, enable faster response times to events. Due to cost constraints, only a few actors can be placed within a WSN application area. Determining which actor or set of actors should respond to an event is important, because the correct decision will increase the event response time, and reduce energy expenditure. Since the mobile actors are widely dispersed over the application area, the actors' accurate location and energy details will not always be available. In this paper, we show that using info-gap decision theory to choose the correct actors to respond to an event when uncertainty about an actor's location and/or energy exists, ensures that the actors chosen can adequately respond to the event. The robustness of the decision choice of the set of actor(s) assigned to respond to an event means that all chosen actor(s) have sufficient energy to respond to the event in real-time.http://www.inderscience.com/browse/index.php?journalCODE=ijsnetai201

Innovations and info-gaps : an overview

International audienceInfo-gap theory is a method for modeling and managing severe uncertainty and for prioritizing the options facing a decision maker. We consider uncertainty both in parameters and in the shape of functions. The analysis reveals intuitively meaningful concepts: the trade off between robustness and requirements, cost of robustness, zero robustness of predicted outcomes, innovation dilemmas, preference reversals resulting from uncertainty, and opportuneness from uncertainty. These insights underlie decision making under severe uncertainty. We consider an example of modeling a mechanical system