Multi-Agent Simulations (MAS) for Assessing Massive Sensor Coverage and Deployment

Abstract : The thesis presents the design, development, and implementation of a multi-agent simulation that models coverage and deployment of mobile and non-mobile sensors performing collaborative target-detection missions. The focus is on sensor networks with enough sensors that humans cannot individually manage each sensor. Experiments investigate novel search, coverage, and deployment algorithms, and compare them to known methods. The experiments show algorithms productive for area coverage are not useful for detecting unauthorized traversals and vice versa. Obstacles, sensor mechanisms, mission parameters, and deployment schemes are analyzed for their effect on coverage quality. This work facilitates further research in sensor coverage and deployment strategies using sensor agents.

[1]  S. Sitharama Iyengar,et al.  Sensor placement for grid coverage under imprecise detections , 2002, Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Information Fusion. FUSION 2002. (IEEE Cat.No.02EX5997).

[2]  Kay Römer,et al.  Middleware challenges for wireless sensor networks , 2002, MOCO.

[3]  W. Hamilton,et al.  The Evolution of Cooperation , 1984 .

[4]  J.P. Hespanha,et al.  Multiple-agent probabilistic pursuit-evasion games , 1999, Proceedings of the 38th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (Cat. No.99CH36304).

[5]  Nael B. Abu-Ghazaleh,et al.  A taxonomy of wireless micro-sensor network models , 2002, MOCO.

[6]  Yoram Koren,et al.  Real-time obstacle avoidance for fast mobile robots in cluttered environments , 1990, Proceedings., IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[7]  Anthony Stentz,et al.  The Focussed D* Algorithm for Real-Time Replanning , 1995, IJCAI.

[8]  Douglas W. Gage,et al.  Randomized search strategies with imperfect sensors , 1994, Other Conferences.

[9]  Magdalena D. Bugajska,et al.  Co-Evolution of Form and Function in the Design of Autonomous Agents: Micro Air Vehicle Project , 2000 .

[10]  Stergios I. Roumeliotis,et al.  Ant-inspired navigation in unknown environments , 2000, AGENTS '00.

[11]  Surya P. N. Singh,et al.  Immunology-directed methods for distributed robotics: a novel immunity-based architecture for robust control and coordination , 2002, SPIE Optics East.

[12]  Gaurav S. Sukhatme,et al.  An Incremental Self-Deployment Algorithm for Mobile Sensor Networks , 2002, Auton. Robots.

[13]  Leonidas J. Guibas,et al.  Finding an unpredictable target in a workspace with obstacles , 1997, Proceedings of International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[14]  Esther M. Arkin,et al.  Algorithms for Rapidly Dispersing Robot Swarms in Unknown Environments , 2002, WAFR.

[15]  Dr. Zbigniew Michalewicz,et al.  How to Solve It: Modern Heuristics , 2004 .

[16]  Gaurav S. Sukhatme,et al.  Spreading Out: A Local Approach to Multi-robot Coverage , 2002, DARS.

[17]  Dimitri P. Bertsekas,et al.  Reinforcement Learning for Dynamic Channel Allocation in Cellular Telephone Systems , 1996, NIPS.

[18]  Santpal Singh Dhillon.  A FAULT-TOLERANT APPROACH TO SENSOR DEPLOYMENT IN DISTRIBUTED SENSOR NETWORKS , 2002 .

[19]  Satish Kumar,et al.  Next century challenges: scalable coordination in sensor networks , 1999, MobiCom.

[20]  Stephen Cameron,et al.  Robot control of animal flocks , 1998, Proceedings of the 1998 IEEE International Symposium on Intelligent Control (ISIC) held jointly with IEEE International Symposium on Computational Intelligence in Robotics and Automation (CIRA) Intell.

[21]  Hobart R. Everett,et al.  Mobile Robot Positioning - Sensors and Techniques , 1997 .

[22]  Mark de Berg,et al.  Computational geometry: algorithms and applications , 1997 .

[23]  Parameswaran Ramanathan,et al.  Sensor deployment strategy for target detection , 2002, WSNA '02.

[24]  Insup Lee,et al.  Distributed spatial control, global monitoring and steering of mobile agents , 1999, Proceedings 1999 International Conference on Information Intelligence and Systems (Cat. No.PR00446).

[25]  Miodrag Potkonjak,et al.  Coverage problems in wireless ad-hoc sensor networks , 2001, Proceedings IEEE INFOCOM 2001. Conference on Computer Communications. Twentieth Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE Computer and Communications Society (Cat. No.01CH37213).

[26]  Alistair James Dickie,et al.  Modeling robot swarms using agent-based simulation , 2002 .

[27]  Gerhard Weiss,et al.  Multiagent systems: a modern approach to distributed artificial intelligence , 1999 .

[28]  R. Axelrod,et al.  The Complexity of Cooperation: Agent-Based Models of Competition and Collaboration , 1998 .

[29]  Mark R. Kindl,et al.  A stochastic approach to the weighted-region problem : 1. the design of the path annealing algorithm , 1991 .

[30]  Maersk Mc-Kinney,et al.  Edutainment Robotics: Applying Modern AI Techniques , 2001 .

[31]  Gaurav S. Sukhatme,et al.  Connecting the Physical World with Pervasive Networks , 2002, IEEE Pervasive Comput..

[32]  Kuang-Ching Wang,et al.  Value-Fusion versus Decision-Fusion for Fault-tolerance in Collaborative Target Detection in Sensor Networks , 2001 .

[33]  Iwan Ulrich,et al.  VFH/sup */: local obstacle avoidance with look-ahead verification , 2000, Proceedings 2000 ICRA. Millennium Conference. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. Symposia Proceedings (Cat. No.00CH37065).

[34]  Bruce A. Draper,et al.  A system to place observers on a polyhedral terrain in polynomial time , 2000, Image Vis. Comput..

[35]  Krishnendu Chakrabarty,et al.  Sensor deployment and target localization based on virtual forces , 2003, IEEE INFOCOM 2003. Twenty-second Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies (IEEE Cat. No.03CH37428).

[36]  Yoram Koren,et al.  Potential field methods and their inherent limitations for mobile robot navigation , 1991, Proceedings. 1991 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[37]  Howie Choset,et al.  Coverage for robotics – A survey of recent results , 2001, Annals of Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence.

[38]  Gaurav S. Sukhatme,et al.  An incremental deployment algorithm for mobile robot teams , 2002, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[39]  Maja J. Matarić,et al.  Cover Me! A Self-Deployment Algorithm for Mobile Sensor Networks , 2001 .

[40]  Gaurav S. Sukhatme,et al.  A region-based approach for cooperative multi-target tracking in a structured environment , 2002, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[41]  S. Sitharama Iyengar,et al.  Grid Coverage for Surveillance and Target Location in Distributed Sensor Networks , 2002, IEEE Trans. Computers.

[42]  Ian F. Akyildiz,et al.  Wireless sensor networks: a survey , 2002, Comput. Networks.

[43]  William M. Spears,et al.  Using artificial physics to control agents , 1999, Proceedings 1999 International Conference on Information Intelligence and Systems (Cat. No.PR00446).

[44]  Pattie Maes,et al.  Co-evolution of Pursuit and Evasion II: Simulation Methods and Results , 1996 .

[45]  Miodrag Potkonjak,et al.  Exposure in wireless Ad-Hoc sensor networks , 2001, MobiCom '01.

[46]  Peter Norvig,et al.  Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach , 1995 .

[47]  Mani B. Srivastava,et al.  SensorSim: a simulation framework for sensor networks , 2000, MSWIM '00.

[48]  Deborah Estrin,et al.  Adaptive beacon placement , 2001, Proceedings 21st International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems.

[49]  Gaurav S. Sukhatme,et al.  Efficient exploration without localization , 2003, 2003 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.03CH37422).

[50]  Kirk A. Stork.  Sensors in Objected Oriented Discrete Event Simulation. , 1996 .

[51]  Gaurav S. Sukhatme,et al.  Mobile Sensor Network Deployment using Potential Fields : A Distributed , Scalable Solution to the Area Coverage Problem , 2002 .

[52]  Douglas W. Gage,et al.  Command Control for Many-Robot Systems , 1992 .

[53]  Douglas W. Gage,et al.  Sensor abstractions to support many-robot systems , 1993, Other Conferences.

[54]  S. Sitharama Iyengar,et al.  Coding theory framework for target location in distributed sensor networks , 2001, Proceedings International Conference on Information Technology: Coding and Computing.

[55]  Maja J. Matarić,et al.  Robust Behavior-Based Control for Distributed Multi-Robot Collection Tasks , 2000 .

[56]  Lynne E. Parker,et al.  Cooperative Robotics for Multi-Target Observation , 1999, Intell. Autom. Soft Comput..

[57]  Alan Watt,et al.  3D Games: Real-Time Rendering and Software Technology , 2000 .