Optimizing movement of mobile robot considering motor characteristics in disruption tolerant sensor networks

As advances in technology progress, we can envision that mobile robots can be used for delivering sensor data as well as sophisticated sensing tasks. We call such the network multi-robot sensor network (MRSN). In sparse MRSN, mobile robot moves for a long duration to carry sensor data compared to duration of using wireless communication. Therefore, in sparse MRSN, minimizing energy consumption for physical movement is a key problem to increase network performance. In this paper, we study the problem and impact of optimal motor speed considering data relaying/exchanging, and considering the optimal speed we propose the algorithm for determining whether the mobile robot exchanges (relays) sensor data or not. We also present our theoretical analysis, and discuss the performance and future issues.