Deployment of Wireless Sensor Network using Mobile Robots to Construct an Intelligent Environment in a Multi-Robot Sensor Network

A Wireless Sensor Network (WSN), consisting of a huge number of small devices called sensor nodes (each with wireless communication functionality, various sensors, a processor, and a power source), is a network system that can communicate and use sensing data gathered mutually by each spatially distributed sensor node. An ad-hoc network connecting each sensor node one by one can be constructed only by deploying an enormous number of sensor nodes, and such a network can be enhanced very easily compared with wired and fixed networks. WSNs can provide various services by collecting and processing the information acquired by the sensor node. WSN technology is expected to be applicable within many fields, such as in the cooperative monitoring of the condition of an environment with a large area, factory equipment, or buildings, as well as in disaster relief support. Additionally, in the area of robotics research, there have been studies on such topics as environmental information structuring and intelligent environments that examine the creation of intelligence not just in robots, but also in ambient environments (e.g. Sato et al., 1996). WSN technology is now the object of attention among researchers attempting to create such intelligent environments. We thought that it would be possible to construct a mobile ad-hoc network with autonomous mobile sensor nodes, environmentally adaptative WSN deployment, and applications within various intelligent systems. Autonomous mobile robot can be used and act as high-performance mobile sensor node in WSN because robots equipped with various sensors and communication capabilities. If a robot can manipulate sensor nodes, that robot can change the range and topology of its WSN according to the communication conditions, sensing and adapting to the environmental situation. Through a fusion of WSNs and robotics, it may be possible to extend communication and sensing areas, replace failure nodes by robots, and reconstruct WSN by relocating its sensor nodes. Moreover, WSNs provide advantages for robots by enabling them to gather and communicate wide-ranging environmental information to one another without relying on