Robotic sensor agents: a new generation of intelligent agents for complex environment monitoring

Monitoring environment parameters is a complex task of great importance in many areas, such as the natural living environment; homeland security; industrial or laboratory hazardous environments (biologically, radioactively, or chemically contaminated); polluted/toxic natural environments; water treatment plants; nuclear stations; war zones; or remote, difficult-to-reach environments, such as the deep space or underwater. This article will discuss a new generation of intelligent, autonomous, wireless robotic sensor agents (RSAs) for complex environment monitoring. Shown in this article is the architecture of an RSA system under development in our laboratory at the University of Ottawa (see Petriu et al., p14-19, May 2002). Monitoring is done by continuously collecting sensory data from stationary and mobile RSAs deployed in the field.