Optimizing movement and communication for autonomous mobile entities

优化自主移动实体的运动和通信

• 批准号: RGPIN-2016-06661
• 负责人: Narayanan, Lata
• 金额: $ 1.89万
• 依托单位: Concordia University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2016-01-01 至 2017-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=616443
• 关键词: Optimizing; movement; communication; autonomous; mobile

Unprecedented technological advances in a variety of fields have brought us increasingly closer to the contemporary vision of the Internet of Things (IoT). It is estimated that in the next five years, over 50 billion devices or things will be connected to the Internet. Most of these things will have embedded inside them, sensors that collect data about their environment and use wireless networking technology to communicate with each other and enable smart decision-making. In the smart cities of the future, sensors embedded in cars, roads and and parking lots will improve daily life by finding parking and avoiding congested routes on the fly; in our homes will enable reduction of energy costs; in healthcare settings will save lives by continuous monitoring of patients; in industrial and commercial settings will improve productivity, to name but a few applications. All this will be achieved with machine-to-machine communication involving little to no human interaction. The potential capabilities of autonomous devices connecting to each other seamlessly are greatly enhanced by the fact that these devices may be mobile, whether they are wearable devices, or they are robot swarms working on a construction site, or they are in driver-less cars. Billions of dollars are being invested by governments and top technology companies worldwide on realizing some of these applications. Many scientific and engineering challenges remain to be solved before the much-heralded vision of smart cities and the Internet of Things can be realized. My research centers on fundamental questions of efficient communication and collaboration between mobile autonomous devices, such as wireless sensors and mobile robots, that are critical to realizing the above applications. Communication in multi-hop wireless networks is very challenging as it necessitates both route-finding and interference-free scheduling of transmissions over multiple links. We need to study fundamental questions of how, when, and what to communicate. Adding mobility to wireless devices expands the range of possible applications but at the same time adds a whole new dimension to the challenge involved. What advantages can we gain from controlled mobility; what are the optimal trajectories to be taken by these autonomous mobile devices to achieve certain tasks? The objectives of this proposal are to focus on the aspect of movement, and to design optimal trajectories and communication strategies for collaborating mobile sensors and robots. In particular, I plan: - to design efficient centralized and distributed algorithms for pattern formation by a set of mobile entities, such as mobile wireless sensors. - to design efficient algorithms for data gathering in multi-hop networks of mobile sensors. - to design efficient trajectories for a set of autonomous mobile robots to collaborate on tasks such as searching and transporting objects of interest.

各个领域前所未有的技术进步使我们越来越接近物联网（IoT）的当代愿景。据估计，在未来五年内，将有超过500亿台设备或事物连接到互联网。这些设备中的大多数都将嵌入传感器，这些传感器收集有关其环境的数据，并使用无线网络技术相互通信，从而实现智能决策。在未来的智能城市中，嵌入在汽车、道路和停车场中的传感器将通过寻找停车位和避免拥挤的路线来改善日常生活;在我们的家中将能够降低能源成本;在医疗保健环境中将通过持续监测患者来挽救生命;在工业和商业环境中将提高生产力，仅举几个应用。所有这一切都将通过机器对机器的通信来实现，几乎不涉及人类交互。自动设备彼此无缝连接的潜在能力由于这些设备可能是移动的的事实而大大增强，无论它们是可穿戴设备，还是在建筑工地上工作的机器人群，或者它们在无人驾驶的汽车中。全球各国政府和顶级技术公司正在投资数十亿美元来实现其中一些应用。 在实现备受瞩目的智慧城市和物联网愿景之前，许多科学和工程挑战仍有待解决。我的研究集中在移动的自主设备（如无线传感器和移动的机器人）之间的有效通信和协作的基本问题上，这些问题对于实现上述应用至关重要。多跳无线网络中的通信是非常具有挑战性的，因为它需要路由发现和多个链路上的传输的无干扰调度。我们需要研究如何沟通、何时沟通以及沟通什么的基本问题。为无线设备增加移动性扩大了可能的应用范围，但同时也为所涉及的挑战增加了一个全新的层面。我们可以从受控的移动性中获得哪些优势;这些自主移动的设备要完成某些任务，最佳轨迹是什么？ 本建议的目标是集中在运动方面，并设计最佳的轨迹和通信策略的协作移动的传感器和机器人。具体而言，我计划： - 设计有效的集中式和分布式算法，用于由诸如移动的无线传感器的一组移动的实体形成图案。 - 为移动的传感器的多跳网络中的数据收集设计有效的算法。 - 为一组自主移动的机器人设计有效的轨迹，以协作完成搜索和运输感兴趣的物体等任务。