Energy Saving Target Tracking Using Mobile Sensor Networks

This paper addresses the problem of tracking a mobile target using a mobile sensor network while minimizing the energy consumption and maintaining the network connectivity during the tracking process. While minimizing the tracking energy consumption is proved to be NP-complete, an approximately optimal solution named breadth-first leader-follower strategy is presented. Nodes close to the target predicted position find their following nodes based on breadth-first search and lead them to cover the probable region where the target may exist next time instant. Meantime the overall network connectivity can be maintained. We have proved that the energy consumption of the nodes moving under the control of the proposed algorithm is within a scalar factor of the optimal consumption. Simulation has been conducted to demonstrate the performance of the algorithm in different situations. The results show that our algorithm can yield good performance in target tracking while consuming little energy.