Particle swarm optimization based topology control mechanism for holonomic unmanned vehicles operating in three-dimensional space

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are increasingly being used to acquire information in harsh and inaccessible environments including underwater and aerial theatres. Self-deployment of autonomous mobile assets in three-dimensional (3D) environments is a critical task to efficiently create WSNs. In this paper, we present a topology control mechanism called 3D-PSO, based on particle swarm optimization algorithm (PSO) running in holonomic unmanned vehicles (HUVs) operating in 3D space. Each HUV is able to adjust its speed and movement direction to achieve better fitness location using our 3D-PSO. We demonstrate that 3D-PSO uses limited information collected from each HUVs local neighbors to make movement decisions over an unknown 3D space to obtain a uniform spatial distribution while maintaining network connectivity. Simulation experiments demonstrate that parameters such as the number of iterations used in our 3D-PSO, and acceleration coefficients influence the efficiency of 3D-PSO.