Mission-driven Resource Management for Reconfigurable Sensing Systems

Importance of this research Almost any process that undertakes actions relies on situational awareness. Such awareness can be supported by using sensors. In dynamic situations the observation task can get complicated and sensors may need to be reconfigured in real time. Choosing the right configuration and allocating the available resources, such as time, of the sensors is very challenging. This thesis proposes the concept of mission-driven resource management to automatically and optimally decide on such choices during the various sensor life cycle phases. elektrotechnisch ingenieur geboren te Voorburg, Nederland. Front: The cover depicts one of the most precious resources. Effective management always means asking the right question. PREFACE On the one hand, the term 'resource management' is inappropriate for this research, because it may shift the reader's mind towards the available 'resources'. The actual focus of this research is the objectives, which is independent of the available resources. On the other hand, the term 'resource management' is quite appropriate, because it is descriptive for many related research that has focussed on the resources. As a result, the subject of research in this thesis is unusual for the domain of 'resource management', or at least, within 'sensor management'. Many fundamental aspects and results presented in this thesis have, according to my knowledge, never been discussed before in such a manner for 'sensor management'. Therefore, this thesis provides novel scientific solutions for sensor design and resource management.