Cooperative data muling from ground sensors to base stations using UAVs

Abstract

Data muling using UAVs/drones is currently emerging as an alternative to the traditional traffic engineering techniques used in wireless sensor networks, when wireless communication is not an option or the least cost-efficient solution. This paper revisits the issue of traffic engineering in Internet-of-Things (IoT) settings, to assess the relevance of using UAVs for the persistent collection of sensor readings from the sensor nodes located into an environment and their delivery to base stations where further processing is performed. We consider a persistent path planning and UAV allocation model, where a team of UAVs coming from various base stations are used to collect data from ground sensors and deliver the collected information to their closest base stations. This problem is mathematically formalised and proven to be NP-hard. We propose a heuristic solution for the problem and evaluate its relative efficiency through simulation.