Layered Distributed Constraint Optimization Problem for Resource Allocation Problem in Distributed Sensor Networks

Abstract

Abstract. Distributed sensor network is an important research area of multi-agent systems. We focus on a type of distributed sensor network systems that cooperatively observe multiple targets with multiple autonomous sensors that can control their own view. The problem of allocating observation resource of the distributed sensor network can be formalized as distributed constraint optimization problems. However, in the previous works, the computation cost to solve the resource allocation problem highly increases with its scale/density. In this work, we divide the problem into two layers of problems, and two layered cooperative solvers are applied to those problems. The result of the experiment shows that our proposed method reduces the number of message cycles.

Distributed Constraint Optimization Problems and Applications: A Survey

“…Target Tracking Problems. In a target tracking application (Zhang et al, 2005;Jain, Taylor, Tambe, & Yokoo, 2009;Ota, Matsui, & Matsuo, 2009;Stranders, Farinelli, Rogers, & Jennings, 2009;Semnani & Basir, 2013), a collection of small Doppler sensors are scattered in an area to detect possible moving targets in the region. Each sensor is battery-powered, can communicate with one another through radio communication, and can scan and detect an object within a fixed range.…”

Multi-Target Engagement in Complex Mobile Surveillance Sensor Networks

“…Matsui et al in [19,20] and Ota et al in [21] propose two DCOP-based formalizations for the target allocation problem. They introduced two-layer distributed cooperative observation system based on an agency model and then applied the model to a sensor network.…”

“…Previous DCOP techniques [18,20,21] usually represent sensors and/ or targets as binary variables, thereby increasing the number of variables and constraints in the DCSP formulation, leading to a larger and more-complex DCSP/DCOP. This could be prohibitive, particularly in large sensor/target problems.…”

“…//where is the number of sensors already tracking tj (7) ; (8) end if (9) end for (10) if then //the sensor is in searching mode (11) = center of adjacent areas that has least visited Ɵmes (12) …”

“…On one hand, distributed constraint optimization has been widely used for modeling various problems, including sensor-to-target allocation ones [3][4][5][6][7][8]. This approach has proven to be both general and efficient, especially, in smallscale problems.…”