Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
7.3
3.4
Journals
Sensors
Special Issues
Robot and Sensor Networks for Environmental Monitoring
sensors-logo
Submit to Sensors Review for Sensors Propose a Special Issue

Journal Menu

► Journal Menu

Journal Browser

► Journal Browser
share announcement

Robot and Sensor Networks for Environmental Monitoring

A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Sensor Networks".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2020) | Viewed by 32749

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Annalisa Milella

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Intelligent Industrial Systems and Technologies for Advanced Manufacturing, National Research Council of Italy, via Amendola 122/D-I, 70126 Bari, Italy
Interests: multi-sensor systems for robot perception; 3D reconstruction and mapping; signal and image processing applied to robotics and intelligent systems; agricultural robotics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Antonio Petitti

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Intelligent Industrial Technologies and Systems for Advanced Manufacturing (STIIMA), National Research Council (CNR), 70126 Bari, Italy
Interests: distributed estimation; agricultural robotics; distributed control; robotic-aided IoT

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent decades, sensor networks have been used across expansive environments to develop effective surveying systems in critical domains like agricultural, forest, and sea monitoring and for ambient intelligence in general. While sensor networks provide a powerful tool to capture relevant information about environments and people activities therein, managing and maintaining the network can be challenging if a dense sampling of the environment is required. On the other hand, sparse area coverage may induce connection failures. Mobile robots hold the promise to enhance the potential of sensor networks. Robots can carry a wide range of sensors, thus offering increased availability and awareness as compared to a static system. They can interact with the environment, with humans or with other robots to perform complex tasks, enabling the development of intelligent systems that are not only able to detect events but also to actively intervene on the environment accordingly. They can also interact with stationary sensors by improving their connectivity or to support labor-intensive tasks such as deployment, maintenance or charging of multiple nodes in wide areas.

The aim of this Special Issue is to provide researchers and professionals with high-quality and state-of-the-art papers addressing the latest advances in the design, development, and deployment of robot and sensor networks. Related research includes but is not limited to robot and sensor network architectures, multisensor data fusion and analysis, communications in monitoring systems, agricultural and forest, sea monitoring, and ambient intelligence applications.

Dr. Annalisa Milella
Dr. Antonio Petitti
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sensors is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Robot and sensor networks
  • Robotic-aided IoT
  • Multisensor data fusion and analysis
  • IoT for environmental monitoring
  • IoT for precision agriculture
  • Agricultural and forest monitoring
  • Sea monitoring
  • Security and surveillance
  • Ambient Intelligence

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (4 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

Jump to: Review

32 pages, 8482 KiB  
Article
Improved RRT-Connect Algorithm Based on Triangular Inequality for Robot Path Planning
by Jin-Gu Kang, Dong-Woo Lim, Yong-Sik Choi, Woo-Jin Jang and Jin-Woo Jung
Sensors 2021, 21(2), 333; https://doi.org/10.3390/s21020333 - 6 Jan 2021
Cited by 94 | Viewed by 8468
Abstract
This paper proposed a triangular inequality-based rewiring method for the rapidly exploring random tree (RRT)-Connect robot path-planning algorithm that guarantees the planning time compared to the RRT algorithm, to bring it closer to the optimum. To check the proposed algorithm’s performance, this paper [...] Read more.
This paper proposed a triangular inequality-based rewiring method for the rapidly exploring random tree (RRT)-Connect robot path-planning algorithm that guarantees the planning time compared to the RRT algorithm, to bring it closer to the optimum. To check the proposed algorithm’s performance, this paper compared the RRT and RRT-Connect algorithms in various environments through simulation. From these experimental results, the proposed algorithm shows both quicker planning time and shorter path length than the RRT algorithm and shorter path length than the RRT-Connect algorithm with a similar number of samples and planning time. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Robot and Sensor Networks for Environmental Monitoring)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

35 pages, 820 KiB  
Article
Energy-Efficient Cluster-Based Data Collection by a UAV with a Limited-Capacity Battery in Robotic Wireless Sensor Networks
by Omer Melih Gul and Aydan Muserref Erkmen
Sensors 2020, 20(20), 5865; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20205865 - 16 Oct 2020
Cited by 28 | Viewed by 3337
Abstract
In this work, our motivation focuses on an energy-efficient data collection problem by a mobile sink, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with limited battery capacity, in a robot network divided into several robot clusters. In each cluster, a cluster head (CH) robot allocates [...] Read more.
In this work, our motivation focuses on an energy-efficient data collection problem by a mobile sink, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with limited battery capacity, in a robot network divided into several robot clusters. In each cluster, a cluster head (CH) robot allocates tasks to the remaining robots and collects data from them. Our contribution is to minimize the UAV total energy consumption coupled to minimum cost data collection from CH robots by visiting optimally a portion of the CH robots. The UAV decides the subset of CH robots to visit by considering not only the locations of all CH robots but also its battery capacity. If the UAV cannot visit all CH robots, then the CH robots not visited by the UAV transmit their data to another CH robot to forward it. The decision of transmission paths of transmitting robots is included in the cost optimization. Our contribution passes beyond the existing paradigms in the literature by considering the constant battery capacity for the UAV. We derive the optimal approach analytically for this problem. For various numbers of clusters, the performance of our strategy is compared with the approach in the close literature in terms of total energy consumed by CH robots, which affects network lifetime. Numerical results demonstrate that our strategy outperforms the approach in the close literature. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Robot and Sensor Networks for Environmental Monitoring)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

21 pages, 3514 KiB  
Article
The Repair Strategy for Event Coverage Holes Based on Mobile Robots in Wireless Sensor and Robot Networks
by Yaoming Zhuang, Chengdong Wu, Hao Wu, Hao Chu, Yuan Gao and Li Li
Sensors 2019, 19(22), 5045; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19225045 - 19 Nov 2019
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3076
Abstract
In the application of the wireless sensor and robot networks (WSRNs), there is an urgent need to accommodate flexible surveillance tasks in intricate surveillance scenarios. On the condition of flexible surveillance missions and demands, event coverage holes occur in the networks. The conventional [...] Read more.
In the application of the wireless sensor and robot networks (WSRNs), there is an urgent need to accommodate flexible surveillance tasks in intricate surveillance scenarios. On the condition of flexible surveillance missions and demands, event coverage holes occur in the networks. The conventional network repair methods based on the geometric graph theory such as Voronoi diagram method are unable to meet the conditions of flexible surveillance tasks and severe multi-restraint scenarios. Mobile robots show obvious advantages in terms of adaptation capacity and mobility in hazardous and severe scenarios. First, we propose an event coverage hole healing model for multi-constrained scenarios. Then, we propose a joint event coverage hole repair algorithm (JECHR) on the basis of global repair and local repair to apply mobile robots to heal event coverage holes in WSRNs. Different from conventional healing methods, the proposed algorithm can heal event coverage holes efficaciously which are resulted from changing surveillance demands and scenarios. The JECHR algorithm can provide an optimal repair method, which is able to adapt different kinds of severe multi-constrained circumstances. Finally, a large number of repair simulation experiments verify the performance of the JECHR algorithm which can be adapted to a variety of intricate surveillance tasks and application scenarios. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Robot and Sensor Networks for Environmental Monitoring)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Review

Jump to: Research

23 pages, 704 KiB  
Review
Internet of Robotic Things in Smart Domains: Applications and Challenges
by Laura Romeo, Antonio Petitti, Roberto Marani and Annalisa Milella
Sensors 2020, 20(12), 3355; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20123355 - 12 Jun 2020
Cited by 113 | Viewed by 17009
Abstract
With the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Internet of Things (IoT) and robotic systems are closely cooperating, reshaping their relations and managing to develop new-generation devices. Such disruptive technology corresponds to the backbone of the so-called Industry 4.0. The integration of robotic [...] Read more.
With the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Internet of Things (IoT) and robotic systems are closely cooperating, reshaping their relations and managing to develop new-generation devices. Such disruptive technology corresponds to the backbone of the so-called Industry 4.0. The integration of robotic agents and IoT leads to the concept of the Internet of Robotic Things, in which innovation in digital systems is drawing new possibilities in both industrial and research fields, covering several domains such as manufacturing, agriculture, health, surveillance, and education, to name but a few. In this manuscript, the state-of-the-art of IoRT applications is outlined, aiming to mark their impact on several research fields, and focusing on the main open challenges of the integration of robotic technologies into smart spaces. IoRT technologies and applications are also discussed to underline their influence in everyday life, inducing the need for more research into remote and automated applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Robot and Sensor Networks for Environmental Monitoring)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-4
Back to TopTop