Implementing Sink Mobility and Recharging Policies Using an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
Poster Number
17
Introduction/Abstract
Providing power to a wireless sensor network can be difficult and expensive when deployed in a remote area or on a structure such as a bridge. If powered by batteries, the nodes that make up the network need to be very power efficient to prolong the lifetime of the nodes and the network as a whole. Two methods of extending network lifetime are moving the sink around the network to spread energy consumption across all nodes, and wirelessly recharging the nodes in a network with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
Purpose
The research we performed tests the two methods of extending sensor network lifetime mentioned above: sink movement and wireless recharging. By finding the best performing sink and recharging algorithms, we can find out if these will provide a significant boost in network lifetime to be worthwhile methods of providing energy to the network.
Method
There are five sink algorithms and three node recharging algorithms that we tested. Each of these algorithms was programmed onto sensor stacks that consist of a power distribution board, and microcontroller board, and an XBee radio used for wireless communication between the nodes. I performed three experiments to test which sink and recharging algorithms would perform the best on the network. The first tested if recharging the sink would perform better than no recharging at all in the network. The second experiment compared recharging the sink to recharging the lowest powered node. The third and last experiment took the best performing recharge algorithm and ran it with each sink algorithm.
Results
The results of the first experiment showed that recharging the sink increased the lifetime of the network by over a factor of ten when compared to no recharging. The second experiment showed that recharging the lowest powered node provided a slight benefit to network lifetime than recharging the sink. The last experiment, using the lowest powered recharging algorithm, showed that the static sink selection algorithm outperformed the other four by about a factor of two. These experiments show that there can be a significant benefit to network lifetime by implementing a recharging and sink selection policy on the sensor network.
Significance
This research will help to further the overall goal of allowing wireless sensor networks to be a feasible means of monitoring remote areas with limited access to wired power or power from the environment. By allowing the sensor network in place to last longer, it will also save the costs of sending humans out to the location of the network to replace batteries or run power lines to the nodes.
Location
DeRosa University Center, Stockton campus, University of the Pacific
Format
Poster Presentation
Implementing Sink Mobility and Recharging Policies Using an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
DeRosa University Center, Stockton campus, University of the Pacific
Providing power to a wireless sensor network can be difficult and expensive when deployed in a remote area or on a structure such as a bridge. If powered by batteries, the nodes that make up the network need to be very power efficient to prolong the lifetime of the nodes and the network as a whole. Two methods of extending network lifetime are moving the sink around the network to spread energy consumption across all nodes, and wirelessly recharging the nodes in a network with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
