Territorial Marking for Improved Area Coverage in Anti-Flocking-Controlled Mobile Sensor Networks

Recently proposed distributed anti-flocking algorithms have enabled mobile sensor networks (MSNs) to deliver impressive area coverage performances. However, due to lack of information about each other's traverse history, mobile sensor nodes tend to travel extra distances to achieve 100% cumulative area coverage. Inspired by the territorial marking behaviour of solitary animals, this paper proposes a new information map and map updating methods for anti-flocking controlled MSNs. The proposed territorial marking anti-flocking control enables MSNs to achieve improved area coverage performances by encouraging nodes to remain in a part of the terrain. According to the results provided in this paper, the proposed algorithm can be more energy efficient for MSNs in continues monitoring applications.