Dynamic Control for Coverage Maximization in Mobile Sensor Networks

In this paper, a new distributed approach for maximizing coverage in a mobile sensor network is proposed. Some results from the multi-agent systems theory are used to generate a control signal composed of both the velocity consensus term and gradient vector to enhance coverage. It is shown that by selecting appropriate parameters, all sensors in the network move to appropriate positions to maximize coverage. The proposed approach is computationally more efficient than the existing results, while the sensors’ energy consumption is also less than the methods reported in the literature. The stability and convergence of the proposed algorithm are proved using the modified LaSalle’s invariance method. Simulations confirm the effectiveness of the control strategy.