OFRD:Obstacle-Free Robot Deployment Algorithms for Wireless Sensor Networks

Node deployment is an important issue in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Sensor nodes should be efficiently deployed in a predetermined region in a low cost and high coverage quality manner. Random deployment is the simplest way for deploying sensor nodes but may cause the unbalanced deployment and therefore increase the hardware cost. This paper presents an efficient obstacle-free robot deployment algorithm, called OFRD which involves the design of node placement policy, snake-like movement policy, and obstacle handling rules. By applying the proposed OFRD, the robot rapidly deploys near-minimal number of sensor nodes to achieve full sensing coverage even though there exist unpredicted obstacles. Performance results reveal that OFRD outperforms the existing robot deployment mechanism in terms of power conservation and obstacle resistance, and, therefore achieves a better deployment performance.