Cartography applications for autonomous sensory agents

This paper proposes a coverage scheme for the rapid mapping of an area’s characteristics by a group of mobile and autonomous sensory agents. It is assumed that the agents utilize the wireless medium for communication, and have limited computational, storage and processing capabilities. These wireless sensory agents collaborate among each other in order to optimize their coverage tasks and communications. In this paper, we present a scheme that helps maximize the system’s efficiency through an adaptive coverage algorithm, where agents share information and collectively build a spatio-temporal view of the activity patterns of the area. Our scheme is particularly useful in applications where the events of interest exhibit an oscillatory behavior. Relevant applications include distant scouting and exploratory missions where the size and number of the scouting agents are crucial to the success of the mission.