Enhancing Underwater Wireless Sensor Network Lifetime: An Energy-Aware AUV-Assisted Data Collection Scheme

Underwater wireless sensor networks (UWSNs) play a crucial role in various applications, including marine environmental monitoring, underwater resource exploration, and intrusion detection. Autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV)-assisted data collection has emerged as a highly promising approach to enhance the capabilities of UWSNs. However, the operation of these networks faces significant challenges, primarily due to the limited and nonreplaceable battery power of sensor nodes and the energy constraint of the AUV. To address these challenges and improve the network lifetime of UWSNs, this article proposes an energy-aware AUV-assisted data collection scheme, named DCCHS, which combines dynamic clustering with cluster head (CH) selection. The DCCHS scheme employs a bottom-up hierarchical clustering algorithm based on the energy center to adaptively form clusters under the constraint of AUV movement distance. Furthermore, an iterative optimization algorithm is applied to select CHs based on residual energy. To balance energy consumption and prevent premature network depletion, auxiliary CHs are strategically added near the AUV path. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed DCCHS scheme significantly outperforms existing methods in extending network lifetime, particularly in scenarios with dense node deployment. This improvement is attributed to the effective balancing of energy consumption among sensor nodes and the AUV.