Optimizing movement and communication for autonomous mobile entities

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500亿台设备或物品连接到互联网。这些设备中的大多数都将嵌入传感器，这些传感器可以收集周围环境的数据，并使用无线网络技术相互通信，从而实现智能决策。在未来的智慧城市中，嵌入汽车、道路和停车场的传感器将通过在飞行中寻找停车位和避免拥堵的路线来改善日常生活；在我们的家庭将使能源成本降低；在医疗机构中，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，仅举几个例子。所有这些都将通过机器对机器的通信来实现，几乎不需要人类的互动。自动设备之间无缝连接的潜在能力大大增强，因为这些设备可能是可移动的，无论是可穿戴设备，还是在建筑工地工作的机器人群，还是在无人驾驶汽车上。世界各国政府和顶级科技公司正在投入数十亿美元来实现其中一些应用。在智慧城市和物联网的愿景得以实现之前，仍有许多科学和工程挑战有待解决。我的研究集中在移动自主设备（如无线传感器和移动机器人）之间有效通信和协作的基本问题上，这对实现上述应用至关重要。在多跳无线网络中通信是非常具有挑战性的，因为它需要在多链路上进行路由查找和传输的无干扰调度。我们需要研究如何沟通、何时沟通以及沟通内容等基本问题。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维度。我们能从控制流动性中获得什么好处？这些自主移动设备完成某些任务的最佳路径是什么？***本提案的目标是关注运动方面，并为移动传感器和机器人的协作设计最佳轨迹和通信策略。特别是，我计划：***-为一组移动实体（如移动无线传感器）的模式形成设计高效的集中式和分布式算法。***-为移动传感器的多跳网络设计高效的数据采集算法。***-为一组自主移动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。

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.