Unmanned Ground Vehicle Navigation in Coordinate-Free and Localization-Free Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks

We present a set of algorithms for the navigation of Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) towards a set of pre-identified target nodes in coordinate-free and localization-free wireless sensor and actuator networks. The UGVs are equipped with a set of wireless listeners that provide sensing information about the potential field generated by the network of actuators. Two main navigation scenarios are considered: single-UGV, single-destination navigation and multi-UGV, multi-destination navigation. For the single-UGV, single-destination case, we present both centralized and distributed navigation algorithms. Both algorithms share a similar two-phase concept. In the first phase, the system assigns level numbers to individual nodes based on their hop distance from the target nodes. In the second phase, the UGV uses the potential field created by the network of actuators to move towards the target nodes, requiring cooperation between triplets of actuator nodes and the UGV. The hop distance to the target nodes is used to control the main moving direction while the potential field, which can be measured by listeners on the UGV, is used to determine the UGV’s movement. For the multi-UGV, multi-destination case, we present a decentralized allocation algorithm such that multiple UGVs avoid converging to the same destination. After each UGV determines its destination, the proposed navigation scheme is applied. The presented algorithms do not attempt to localize UGVs or sensor nodes and are therefore suitable for operating in GPS-free/denied environments. We also present a study of the communication complexity of the algorithms as well as simulation examples that verify the proposed algorithms and compare their performances.