How to Perform Energy-Balanced Underwater Data Collection in AUV-Aided UASNs: A Social Welfare-Based Node Clustering Approach

The rapid evolution of the Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT) has led to the widespread adoption of autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV)-assisted underwater acoustic sensor networks (UASNs) for various applications such as marine environment monitoring and resource exploration. This article introduces an energy-balanced data collection scheme tailored for AUV-supported UASNs. The proposed scheme combines a node clustering method based on a social welfare function and an intelligent path planning strategy for the AUV. The node clustering approach integrates canopy and K-means algorithms for initial node clustering, followed by reclustering using an enhanced hierarchical clustering algorithm. To balance energy distribution, Atkinson's social welfare function is employed to select and rotate cluster heads (CHs) within each cluster. To address limited CH memory constraints, a lossless compression technique is introduced to reduce data storage requirements at the CHs. Moreover, the article introduces the use of the deep Q-network (DQN) technique for AUV path planning, considering multiple pertinent factors simultaneously. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed data collection scheme effectively reduces energy consumption, prolongs network lifespan, and enhances data collection efficiency when compared to recent research endeavors.