Target Coverage Mechanism for Wireless Mobile Sensor Networks

Target coverage problem has received plenty of attention in the past few years, where a set of given Points of Interest (POIs) in the monitoring area needs to be covered by sensor nodes. Recent researches developed algorithms that use the mobility of mobile sensors for connectivity purpose, resulting in lower hardware cost. However, the network lifetime is very limited because mobile sensors are battery-powered. In this paper, we study how to make the network lifetime in target coverage unlimited, by using the mobility of a minimal number of mobile sensors to harvest solar energy. The major contribution of this paper is that we consider the scenarios in which POIs have different importance, referred as quality of monitoring (QoM). The POIs with higher QoM need to be covered by more mobile sensors. Additionally, the application of mobility of mobile sensor for better harvesting opportunity within the monitoring area makes the overall ratio of energy harvested relatively high and the cost of network cheaper.