A bio-inspired object tracking algorithm for minimizing power consumption

A wireless sensor network (WSN) is a distributed information processing system with the capabilities of sensing, wireless communication and data processing. Individual sensor modules of such a network sense the environment, perform data processing locally and cooperate with other sensors via communication. One very important issue in the deployment of a wireless sensor network is the problem of optimizing energy consumption as these networks may be deployed in places where energy supply are not readily available such as in a seaport container terminal and they are required to work with a long lifespan. The main objective of our research is to develop an algorithm for controlling the power consumption of sensor modules in a wireless sensor network for mobile object tracking. The algorithm determines the actions of an individual sensor module to enter a low power state to conserve energy while maintaining its functionality to track objects and to optimize the lifespan of the entire sensor network by reducing overall power consumption. A control framework and corresponding algorithms for controlling the actions of a sensor is designed and experimentation is done to show its efficiency in controlling power consumption of a sensor network.