LQR Formulation of Sensor Deployment for Decision Fusion Based Detection

Assuming that decision fusion is employed for detection in a distributed sensor network (DSN), what is the best sensor deployment strategy to satisfy specific detection and false alarm rate requirements? This is the fundamental question we address in this paper. Towards this end, we propose a novel treatment of the deployment problem in the context of optimal control theory. Specifically, we model the deployment problem as a linear quadratic regulator problem, with the deployment locations serving as control parameters. Within this framework, we propose a sequential sensor deployment algorithm. We compare the performance of the proposed algorithm against that of a greedy algorithm. Simulation results, show that the proposed algorithm can save up to 40% in the number of sensors used relative to the greedy algorithm.