Snap and spread: A self-deployment algorithm for mobile sensor networks

The use of mobile sensors is motivated by the necessity to monitor critical areas where sensor deployment cannot be performed manually. In these working scenarios, sensors must adapt their initial position to reach a final deployment which meets some given performance objectives such as coverage extension and uniformity, total moving distance, number of message exchanges and convergence rate. We propose an original algorithm for autonomous deployment of mobile sensors called SNAP & SPREAD. Decisions regarding the behavior of each sensor are based on locally available information and do not require any prior knowledge of the operating conditions nor any manual tuning of key parameters. We conduct extensive simulations to evaluate the performance of our algorithm. This experimental study shows that, unlike previous solutions, our algorithm reaches a final stable deployment, uniformly covering even irregular target areas. Simulations also give insights on the choice of some algorithm variants that may be used under some different operative settings.