Multi-objective optimization for coverage control in wireless sensor network with adjustable sensing radius

In this paper, the problem of maintaining sensing coverage by keeping a small number of active sensor nodes and a small amount of energy consumption in a wireless sensor network is studied. As opposed to the uniform sensing model previously, we consider a large number of sensors with adjustable sensing radius that are randomly deployed to monitor a target area. A novel coverage control scheme based on elitist non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) is proposed in a heterogeneous sensor network. By devising a cluster-based architecture, the algorithm is applied in a distributed way. Furthermore, an ameliorated binary coding is addressed to represent both sensing radius adjustment and sensor selection. Numerical and simulation results validate that the procedure to find the optimal balance point among the maximum coverage rate, the least energy consumption, as well as the minimum number of active nodes is fast and effective.