When opportunity proceeds from autonomy: A tour-based architecture for disconnected mobile sensors

We consider the case of sparse mobile sensors deployed to implement missions in challenging environments. This paper explores a notion of tour networks that is well suited to circumstances in which autonomous sensing agents cannot rely on standard networking abstractions and must create their own opportunities for communication and interaction. Tours are high-level building blocks that combine motion, communication and sensing and can be assembled to implement a broad class of autonomous sensing missions. They are supported by an architecture designed to deliver performance and robustness without compromising design abstraction.