Title: Reaction-diffusion based autonomous control of wireless sensor networks

Authors: Katsuya Hyodo, Naoki Wakamiya, Etsushi Nakaguchi, Masayuki Murata, Yuki Kubo, Kentaro Yanagihara

Addresses: Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan. ' Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan. ' College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, 2-8-30 Kohnodai, Ichikawa, Chiba 272-0827, Japan. ' Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan. ' Corporate Research & Development Center, Oki Electric Industry Co. Ltd., 2-5-7 Honmachi, Chuo-ku, Osaka, Japan. ' Corporate Research & Development Center, Oki Electric Industry Co. Ltd., 2-5-7 Honmachi, Chuo-ku, Osaka, Japan

Abstract: Taking into account requirements of sensor networks, we need fully-distributed and self-organising control mechanisms which are scalable to the size of a network, robust to failures of sensor nodes, and adaptive to different and dynamically changing topology and changes in wireless communication environment. To accomplish this goal, our research group focuses on behaviour of biological systems, which inherently are scalable, adaptive and robust. In this paper, we first verify the practicality of control mechanisms adopting a reaction-diffusion equation, which explains emergence of patterns on the surface of body of fishes and mammals, and then propose two methods for faster pattern generation to save energy consumption. Prom simulation and practical experiments on a prototype, it was shown that a stable pattern could be generated in a wireless sensor network in several minutes, even when packets were lost for collisions in wireless communication.

Keywords: wireless sensor networks; WSNs; reaction-diffusion; biological systems; practical experiments; wireless networks; autonomous control; distributed control; self-organising control; pattern generation; energy consumption; surface patterns.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSNET.2010.033202

International Journal of Sensor Networks, 2010 Vol.7 No.4, pp.189 - 198

Published online: 13 May 2010 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article