Servicing wireless sensor networks by mobile robots

Wireless sensor and robot networks (WSRNs) have emerged as a paradigmatic class of cyberphysical systems with cooperating objects. Due to the robots’ potential to unleash a wider set of networking means and thus augment the network performance, WSRNs have rapidly become a hot research area. In this article, we elaborate on WSRNs from two unique standpoints: robot task allocation and robot task fulfillment. The former deals with robots cooperatively deciding on the set of tasks to be individually carried out to achieve a desired goal; the latter enables robots to fulfill the assigned tasks through intelligent mobility scheduling.