An efficient online robot mobile deployment strategy

In wireless sensor networks, mobile robot deployment is faced with two key requirements: coverage quality and dead-end escape. The existing methods are with either high cost (storage, computing and energy consumption) or inefficient dead-end escape path, which plagues the robot with limited resources. This paper proposes an efficient online path planning (EOPP) strategy for robot mobile deployment, mainly consisting of basis deployment algorithm and dead-end handling algorithm. The former defines a digital matrix and guides the robot to move through the access priority value assigned to each deployment location, which can achieve complete coverage. The latter can effectively solve the dead-end problem through the judgment of special encounter point. Simulation results verify that the proposed strategy can provide efficient deployment path escaping from the dead ends and improve the coverage ratio.