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Traditional wireless sensor networks (WSNs) with one static sink node suffer from the well-known hot spot problem, that of sensor nodes near the static sink bear more traffic load than outlying nodes. Thus, the overall network lifetime is reduced due to the fact some nodes deplete their energy reserves much faster compared to the rest. Recently, adopting sink mobility has been considered as a good strategy to overcome the hot spot problem. Mobile sink(s) physically move within the network and communicate with selected nodes, such as cluster heads (CHs), to perform direct data collection through short-range communications that requires no routing. Finding an optimal mobility trajectory for the mobile sink is critical in order to achieve energy efficiency. Taking hints from nature, the ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm has been seen as a good solution to finding an optimal traversal path. Whereas the traditional ACO algorithm will guide ants to take a small step to the next node using current information, over time they will deviate from the target. Likewise, a mobile sink may communicate with selected node for a relatively long time making the traditional ACO algorithm delays not suitable for high real-time WSNs applications. In this paper, we propose an improved ACO algorithm approach for WSNs that use mobile sinks by considering CH distances. In this research, the network is divided into several clusters and each cluster has one CH. While the distance between CHs is considered under the traditional ACO algorithm, the mobile sink node finds an optimal mobility trajectory to communicate with CHs under our improved ACO algorithm. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can significantly improve wireless sensor network performance compared to other routing algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In wireless sensor networks (WSNs), sensor nodes near static sink will have more traffic load to forward and the network lifetime will get largely reduced. This problem is referred to as the hotspot problem. Recently, adopting sink mobility has been considered as a good strategy to overcome the hotspot problem. Despite its many advantages, due to the dynamic network topology caused by sink mobility, data transmission to the mobile sink is a challenging task. To achieve efficient data dissemination, nodes need to reconstruct their routes toward the latest location of the mobile sink, which weakens the energy conservation aim. In this paper, we proposed an energy-efficient cluster-based dynamic routes adjustment approach (EECDRA) which aims to minimize the routes reconstruction cost of the sensor nodes while maintaining nearly optimal routes to the latest location of the mobile sinks. The network is divided into several equal clusters and cluster heads are selected within each cluster. We also set some communication rules that manage routes reconstruction process accordingly requiring only a limited number of nodes to readjust their data delivery routes toward the mobile sinks. Simulation results show that the mobile sinks for reducing reconstruction of route have improved the energy efficiency and prolonged lifetime of wireless sensor network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the fast development of wireless communications, ZigBee and semiconductor devices, home automation networks have recently become very popular. Since typical consumer products deployed in home automation networks are often powered by tiny and limited batteries, one of the most challenging research issues is concerning energy reduction and the balancing of energy consumption across the network in order to prolong the home network lifetime for consumer devices. The introduction of clustering and sink mobility techniques into home automation networks have been shown to be an efficient way to improve the network performance and have received significant research attention. Taking inspiration from nature, this paper proposes an Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) based clustering algorithm specifically with mobile sink support for home automation networks. In this work, the network is divided into several clusters and cluster heads are selected within each cluster. Then, a mobile sink communicates with each cluster head to collect data directly through short range communications. The ACO algorithm has been utilized in this work in order to find the optimal mobility trajectory for the mobile sink. Extensive simulation results from this research show that the proposed algorithm significantly improves home network performance when using mobile sinks in terms of energy consumption and network lifetime as compared to other routing algorithms currently deployed for home automation networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efficiency and durability are becoming two key issues for the energy storage system in electric vehicles together with their associated power management strategies. In this paper, we present a procedure for the design of a near-optimal power management strategy for the hybrid battery and ultracapacitor energy storage system (HESS) in a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle. The design procedure starts by defining a cost function to minimize the electricity consumption of the HESS and to optimize the operating behavior of the battery. To determine the optimal control actions and power distribution between two power sources, a dynamic programming (DP)-based novel analysis method is proposed, and the optimization framework is presented accordingly. Through analysis of the DP control actions under different battery state-of-health (SoH) conditions, near-optimal rules are extracted. A rule based power management is proposed based on the abstracted rules and simulation results indicate that the new control strategy can improve system efficiency under different SoH and different SoC conditions. Ultimately, the performance of proposed strategy is further verified under different types of driving cycles including the MANHATTAN cycle, 1015 6PRIUS cycle and UDDSHDV cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]