CAREER: Efficient Encoding Communication and Data Fusion Strategies for Wireless Networks of Sensors and Actuators

University Of Maryland, College Park, College Park MD

Investigators

Abstract

The focus of this project is the investigation of the performance limits and the devel-opment of an algorithmic framework for resource-efficient encoding, communication, and fusion of measurements in wireless networks of distributed sensors and actuators. Such networks are attractive solutions for a broad spectrum of applications due to the inherent sensor/actuator mobility, the spatial flexibility these networks allow in taking actions and collecting measure-ments, and consequently the quality of the data they can provide. In particular, they find use in "smart-space" type applications, target tracking and surveillance for robot navigation and radar applications, and data gathering for weather forecasting and environmental applications. The research focus of the project is the development of low-power minimal-delay algo-rithms for encoding noisy information-bearing signals at the sensors, bandwidth-efficient tech-niques for communicating the encodings over the common RF bandwidth to a host, and reliable methods for host data fusion. A key component of this effort involves the development of a hierar-chy of sequential encoding algorithms at each sensor for a large class of signal-in-noise models and under various processing complexity and delay constraints. These are to be complemented with the development of resource-efficient algorithms for synchronous and asynchronous multisensor communication of the sensor encodings to the host over fading channels, and associated signal estimation algorithms for data fusion at the host. The teaching component of the work uses the project investigation as a vehicle for encouraging the involvement of students into research while exposing them to the fields of wireless communication and data fusion. In particular, it involves incorporation of various components of the proposed research objectives into graduate and un-dergraduate education through the development of an experimental wireless simulation testbed, whose role is to allow students to implement and test a select subset of the algorithms developed in the research part of the project.