A Multi-Node Rechargeable Algorithm via Wireless Charging Vehicle with Optimal Traveling Path in Wireless Rechargeable Sensor Networks

Abstract

Recently, wireless power transfer (WPT) technology has increasingly become a promising approach to addressing the energy constraint problem in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). In this paper, we propose a multi-node rechargeable algorithm (MRA) for the WPT based wireless rechargeable sensor networks (WRSNs), which employs a mobile wireless charging vehicle (WCV) to periodically visit each specified docking site in WSNs and charge all nodes within its charging range simultaneously. Since the WCV's energy consumption includes traveling and charging, our proposed algorithm aims to reduce the number of docking sites and optimize the WCV's traveling path, thus immensely decreasing the energy consumed during the WCV's movement and improving the scalability of charging scheduling. Finally, extensive simulation results show that, compared with state-of-the-art charging schedule algorithms, our algorithm can guarantee better performance in the number of docking sites and the length of traveling path.