Distributed anti-flocking control for mobile surveillance systems

Mobile sensor networks (MSNs) are commonly used for monitoring an area of interest (AoI) in security and surveillance systems. Maximizing the area coverage is one of the primary objectives of such systems. With the added mobility over traditional stationary sensor nodes, mobile nodes can adjust their positions inside the AoI to increase the overall coverage. In this paper, we propose an emergent motion control algorithm for MSNs utilized in surveillance applications. The proposed algorithm is inspired by the anti-flocking behaviour of solitary animals. It facilitates robust distributed control for the MSNs to maximize the network coverage. Computer simulations were performed to analyze performances of the proposed algorithm. Simulation results show that under certain conditions, a MSN with the proposed algorithm can achieve similar network coverage as one with centralized anti-flocking control. Furthermore, the proposed distributed control algorithm provides improved scalability and adaptivity over the centralized anti-flocking control and coordinated motion control models.