UAV Deployment for Data Collection in Energy Constrained WSN System

This paper addresses the problem of deploying unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to assist data collection and transmission in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). A multi-UAV deployment algorithm is proposed for an energy-constrained network to minimize the maximum transmit power of the sensor node (SN), while satisfying data rate and transmit power constraints. The problem is divided into two subproblems, namely, UAV-SN association, and UAV positioning. First, the UAV-SN association is addressed using a customized Gale-Shapley algorithm. Then, the 2D positions of the UAVs are decided using a modified pattern search algorithm. The two subproblems are solved alternatively in an iterative manner to obtain a near-optimal solution. Compared to baseline algorithms, the proposed solution results in at least 4-fold and 4.5-fold reductions in the number of iterations required for convergence, and the maximum transmit power, respectively.