In this paper, we address the problem of deploying heterogeneous mobile sensors over a target area. Traditional approaches to mobile sensor deployment are specifically designed for homogeneous networks. Nevertheless, network and device homogeneity is an unrealistic assumption in most practical scenarios, and previous approaches fail when adopted in heterogeneous operative settings. For this reason, we introduce VorLag, a generalization of the Voronoi-based approach which exploits the Laguerre geometry. We theoretically prove the appropriateness of our proposal to the management of heterogeneous networks. In addition, we demonstrate that VorLag can be extended to deal with dynamically generated events or uneven energy depletion due to communications. Finally, by means of simulations, we show that VorLag provides a very stable sensor behavior, with fast and guaranteed termination and moderate energy consumption. We also show that VorLag performs better than its traditional counterpart and other methods based on virtual forces
Mobile sensor networks are important for several strategic applications devoted to monitoring critical areas. In such hostile scenarios, sensors cannot be deployed manually and are either sent from a safe location or dropped from an aircraft. Mobile devices permit a dynamic deployment reconfiguration that improves the coverage in terms of completeness and uniformity. In this paper we propose a distributed algorithm for the autonomous deployment of mobile sensors called Push & Pull. According to our proposal, movement decisions are made by each sensor on the basis of locally available information and do not require any prior knowledge of the operating conditions or any manual tuning of key parameters. We formally prove that, when a sufficient number of sensors are available, our approach guarantees a complete and uniform coverage. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the algorithm execution always terminates preventing movement oscillations. Numerous simulations show that our algorithm reaches a complete coverage within reasonable time with moderate energy consumption, even when the target area has irregular shapes. Performance comparisons between Push & Pull and one of the most acknowledged algorithms show how the former one can efficiently reach a more uniform and complete coverage under a wide range of working scenarios
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