An Efficient Routing Algorithm to Optimize the Lifetime of Sensor Network Using Wireless Charging Vehicle

Although wireless sensor devices usually have limited power, they are widely deployed in various applications, such as in remote sensing for forestry applications, military monitoring, and animal behavior. Most sensor applications deploy sensor devices in natural environments, such as forests, tunnels, and caves, to monitor targets and to collect data. To permanently monitor target environments, the battery in a sensor device needs to be recharged as its battery capacity the limited. A wireless charging vehicle uses wireless charging technology to prolong the lifetime of sensor network applications by recharging the device´s battery. The wireless charging vehicle is usually equipped with a large capacity battery, an electromagnetic field, and wheels such that it can move throughout an entire sensor network to charge sensors´ batteries. When the wireless charging vehicle does not need to recharge any sensor´s battery, it stays at a service station to recharge its own battery. Hence, a wireless charging vehicle needs to consider two things: sensor network lifetime, and vehicle energy consumption. This work proposes a geometric solution called the Dynamic Path Generation Scheme (DPG-Scheme) to arrange the Wireless Charging Vehicle´s (WCV´s) travelling path while minimizing a vehicle´s energy consumption and maximizing a sensor network´s lifetime. The DPG-Scheme is based on the space-filling curve solution. Based on the properties of the space-filling curve, the DPG-Scheme uses space-filling curves as a space-filling curve heuristic for the NP-hard Euclidean travelling salesperson problem. The DPG-Scheme can reduce computational time when computing a wireless sensor network´s (WSN´s) travelling path and a new path is calculated rapidly during sensor network topology changes.