Optimizing AUV Positioning and Data Transmission with Actor Critic (A3C) Algorithm in Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks

In recent years, UWSNs have emerged as a game-changer in many aquatic applications, including exploration, environmental monitoring, target tracking for underwater navigation, terrain-assisted navigation, and many more. The intricacy of the underwater environment presents several obstacles for the deployment of sensor nodes, and UWSNs are dynamic networks, unlike terrestrial wireless sensor networks. Instead of transferring data from every node to a destination node, autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) provide a more reliable option for data collecting in UWSNs. Nevertheless, a major challenge in data collection for UWSNs is the development of AUV positioning algorithms that are both delay-aware and energy-efficient. A trustworthy AUV-based data-collection routing strategy employed for UWSNs with the goal of decreasing network latency and increasing network lifespan. A positioning mechanism is used by the proposed protocol to gather data utilizing AUVs. With the goal of lowering power usage, the sink node coordinates AUV data collecting from the sensor nodes. To improve scalability, sensor nodes are first grouped into clusters, and then an AUV is assigned to each cluster. Second, in order to ensure the trustworthy gathering of data, the Actor 3 Critic (A3C) for every AUV is designed using the Markov decision process (MDP). In regards to energy consumption, delay, coverage percentage, and dependability, the simulation results validate the efficacy and efficiency of the proposed method.