Mobility and routing joint design for lifetime maximization in mobile sensor networks

The positions of mobile sensor nodes and the routing of sensing data to a base station for processing have major impact on the lifetime of a mobile sensor network. Based on our previous work on mobility for lifetime maximization, this paper investigates simultaneously designing mobility and routing strategies of robotic sensor nodes to improve the lifetime of a mobile sensor network. The network lifetime problem was formulated as a nonlinear non-convex optimization problem and is solved distributedly by a series of convex approximations and a proposed novel algorithm. Computer simulations illustrated quick convergence to the solution, and the lifetime of the network was improved tremendously. By comparison, the proposed joint design method has an edge over other methods, which further justifies the use of mobility for energy efficiency in robotic sensor networks.