Navigation of mobile node in wireless sensor networks without localization

Abstract

In this paper, algorithms for navigating a mobile node through wireless sensor networks are presented. The mobile node can navigate without the need for a map, compass, or GPS module while interacting with neighboring sensor nodes. Two navigation algorithms are proposed in this paper: the first uses the distance between the mobile node and each sensor node and the second uses the metric calculated from one-hop neighbors’ hop-counts. Periodically measuring the distance or metric, the mobile node can move toward a point where these values become smaller and finally come to reach the destination. These algorithms do not attempt to localize the mobile node for navigation, therefore our approach permits cost effective robot navigation while overcoming the limitations of traditional navigation algorithms. Through a number of experiments and simulations, the performance of the two proposed algorithms is evaluated.