This paper presents a collaborative target tracking framework, in which distributed mechanisms are developed for
tracking multiple mobile targets using a team of networked micro robotic vehicles. Applications of such a framework
would include detection of multi-agent intrusion, network-assisted attack localization, and other collaborative search
scenarios. The key idea of the developed framework is to design distributed algorithms that can be executed by tracking
entities using a mobile ad hoc network. The paper comprises the following components. First, the software and
hardware architectural detail of a
Swarm Capable Autonomous Vehicle (SCAV) system that is used as the mobile
platform in our target tracking application is presented. Second, the details of an indoor self-localization and Kalman
filter based navigation system for the SCAV are presented. Third, a formal definition of the collaborative multi-target
tracking problem and a heuristic based networked solution are developed. Finally, the performance of the proposed
tracking framework is evaluated on a laboratory test-bed of a fleet of SCAV vehicles. A detailed system characterization
in terms localization, navigation, and collaborative tracking performance is performed on the SCAV test-bed. In addition
to valuable implementation insights about the localization, navigation, filtering, and ad hoc networking processes, a
number of interesting conclusions about the overall tracking system are presented.
KEYWORDS: Raster graphics, Sensors, Sensor networks, Data modeling, Performance modeling, Energy efficiency, Computer simulations, Receivers, Data transmission, Data communications
This paper presents a self-organizing MAC protocol framework for distributed sensor networks with arbitrary mesh
topologies. The novelty of the proposed ISOMAC (In-band Self-Organized MAC) protocol lies in its in-band control
mechanism for exchanging TDMA slot information while distributed MAC scheduling. A fixed length bitmap vector is
used in each packet header for exchanging relative slot timing information across immediate and up to 2-hop neighbors.
It is shown that by avoiding explicit timing information exchange, ISOMAC can work without network-wide time
synchronization which can be prohibitive for severely cost-constrained sensor nodes in very large networks. A slotclustering
effect, caused by in-band bitmap constraints, causes ISOMAC to offer better spatial channel reuse compared
to traditional distributed TDMA protocols. ISOMAC employs a partial node wake-up and header-only transmission
strategy to adjust energy expenditure based on the instantaneous nodal data rate. Both analytical and simulation models
have been developed for characterizing the proposed protocol. Results demonstrate that with in-band bitmap vectors of
moderate length, ISOMAC converges reasonably quickly - approximately within 4 to 8 TDMA frame duration. Also, if
the bitmap header duration is restricted within 10% of packet duration, the energy penalty of the in-band information is
quite negligible. It is also shown that ISOMAC can be implemented in the presence of network time synchronization,
although its performance without synchronization is just marginally worse than that with synchronization.
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