Backbone-based roadmaps for robot navigation in sensor networks

In this paper, we propose a distributed path planning method for robot navigation amidst a wireless sensor network. Our method uses communication backbone as a roadmap. In building and maintaining the roadmap, it takes path safety and network longevity into account, and therefore the roadmap adapts to dynamic dangers and evolves over time to increase network longevity. To find a safe path, a navigation field is propagated over the roadmap and the shortest path is computed. Simulation results show that as compared to existing methods our method finds a safe path with less communication cost, and in dense networks it generates smaller roadmaps. We also provide theoretical bounds on the path quality in terms of path length.