S-NETS: Smart Sensor Networks

The utilization of nonmobile, distributed sensor and communication devices by a team of mobile robots o ers performance advantages in terms of speed, energy, robustness and communication requirements. Models of mobile robots with on-board sensors, a communication protocol and the S-Net system are established. Algorithms are de ned for the S-Net which perform cooperative computation and provide information about the environment. Behaviors include robots going to or surrounding a temperature source. The simulation experiments show that the S-Net performs well, and is particularly robust with respect to noise in the environment. System cost versus performance is studied, and guidelines are formulated for which the S-Net system out-performs the non-S-Net system.