Coverage problems in mobile sensing

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2008.

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Deshpande, Ajay A
Other Authors: Sanjay E. Sarma and Daniela Rus.
Format: Thesis
Language:eng
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2009
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/46485
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author Deshpande, Ajay A
author2 Sanjay E. Sarma and Daniela Rus.
author_facet Sanjay E. Sarma and Daniela Rus.
Deshpande, Ajay A
author_sort Deshpande, Ajay A
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description Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2008.
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spelling mit-1721.1/464852019-04-10T14:05:40Z Coverage problems in mobile sensing Deshpande, Ajay A Sanjay E. Sarma and Daniela Rus. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering. Mechanical Engineering. Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2008. Includes bibliographical references (p. 177-183). Sensor-networks can today measure physical phenomena at spatial and temporal scales that were not achievable earlier, and have shown promise in monitoring the environment, structures, agricultural fields and so on. A key challenge in sensor-networks is the coordination of four actions across the network: measurement (sensing), communication, motion and computation. The term coverage is applied to the central question of how well a sensor-network senses some phenomenon to make inferences. More formally, a coverage problem involves finding an arrangement of sensors that optimizes a coverage metric. In this thesis we examine coverage in the context of three sensing modalities. The literature on the topic has thus far focused largely on coverage problems with the first modality: static event-detection sensors, which detect purely binary events in their immediate vicinity based on thresholds. However, coverage problems for sensors which measure physical quantities like temperature, pressure, chemical concentrations, light intensity and so on in a network configuration have received limited attention in the literature. We refer to this second modality of sensors as estimation sensors; local estimates from such sensors can be used to reconstruct a field. Third, there has been recent interest in deploying sensors on mobile platforms. Mobility has the effect of increasing the effectiveness of sensing actions. We further classify sensor mobility into incidental and intentional motion. Incidentally mobile sensors move passively under the influence of the environment, for instance, a floating sensor drifting in the sea. We define intentional mobility as the ability to control the location and trajectory of the sensor, for example by mounting it on a mobile robot. We build our analysis on a series of cases. We first analyze coverage and connectivity of a network of floating sensors in rivers using simulations and experimental data, and give guidelines for sensor-network design. Second, we examine intentional mobility and detection sensors. (cont.) We examine the problem of covering indoor and outdoor pathways with reconfigurable camera sensor-networks. We propose and validate an empirical model for detection behavior of cameras. We propose a distributed algorithm for reconfiguring locations of cameras to maximize detection performance. Finally, we examine more general strategies for the placement of estimation sensors and ask when and where to take samples in order to estimate an unknown spatiotemporal field with tolerable estimation errors. We discuss various classes of error-tolerant sensor arrangements for trigonometric polynomial fields. by Ajay A. Deshpande. Ph.D. 2009-08-26T16:33:33Z 2009-08-26T16:33:33Z 2008 2008 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/46485 399679120 eng M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 183 p. application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Mechanical Engineering.
Deshpande, Ajay A
Coverage problems in mobile sensing
title Coverage problems in mobile sensing
title_full Coverage problems in mobile sensing
title_fullStr Coverage problems in mobile sensing
title_full_unstemmed Coverage problems in mobile sensing
title_short Coverage problems in mobile sensing
title_sort coverage problems in mobile sensing
topic Mechanical Engineering.
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/46485
work_keys_str_mv AT deshpandeajaya coverageproblemsinmobilesensing