Sensors deployment optimization in multi-dimensional space based on improved particle swarm optimization algorithm

Sensors deployment optimization has become one of the most attractive fields in recent years. However, most of the previous work focused on the deployment problem in 2D space. Compared to the traditional form, sensors deployment in multi-dimensional space has greater research significance and practical potential to satisfy the detecting needs in complex environment. Aiming at solving this issue, a multi-dimensional space sensor network model is established, and the radar system is selected as an example. Considering the possible working mode of the radar system (e.g., searching and tracking), two distinctive deployment models are proposed based on maximum coverage area and maximum target detection probability in the attack direction respectively. The latter one is usually ignored in the previous literature. For uncovering the optimal deployment of the sensor network, the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is improved using the proposed weights determination scheme, in which the linear decreasing, the pooling strategy and the cloud theory are combined for weights updating. Experimental results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.