Power Aware Visual Sensor Network for Wildlife Habitat Monitoring

TL;DR

This paper addresses energy conservation in wireless camera sensor networks for wildlife monitoring by developing algorithms that maximize network lifetime and coverage through sensor selection heuristics.

Contribution

It introduces two algorithms considering network lifetime and coverage, and proposes heuristics for sensor subset selection in NP-complete coverage problems.

Findings

Algorithms extend network lifetime while maintaining coverage

Heuristics effectively select sensors based on visual and communication properties

Coverage degradation is managed gracefully when full coverage is unachievable

Abstract

One of the fundamental issue in wireless sensor network is conserving energy and thus extending the lifetime of the network. In this paper we investigate the coverage problem in camera sensor networks by developing two algorithms which consider network lifetime. Also, it is assumed that camera sensors spread randomly over a large area in order to monitor a designated air space. To increase the lifetime of the network, the density of distributed sensors could be such that a subset of sensors can cover the required air space. As a sensor dies another sensor should be selected to compensate for the dead one and reestablish the complete coverage. This process should be continued until complete coverage is not achievable by the existing sensors. Thereafter, a graceful degradation of the coverage is desirable. The goal is to elongate the lifetime of the network while maintaining a maximum possible coverage of the designated air space. Since the selection of a subset of sensors for complete coverage of the target area is an NP-complete problem we present a class of heuristics for this case. This is done by prioritizing the sensors based on their visual and communicative properties.