In the application of the wireless sensor and robot networks (WSRNs), there is an urgent need to accommodate flexible surveillance tasks in intricate surveillance scenarios. On the condition of flexible surveillance missions and demands, event coverage holes occur in the networks. The conventional network repair methods based on the geometric graph theory such as Voronoi diagram method are unable to meet the conditions of flexible surveillance tasks and severe multi-restraint scenarios. Mobile robots show obvious advantages in terms of adaptation capacity and mobility in hazardous and severe scenarios. First, we propose an event coverage hole healing model for multi-constrained scenarios. Then, we propose a joint event coverage hole repair algorithm (JECHR) on the basis of global repair and local repair to apply mobile robots to heal event coverage holes in WSRNs. Different from conventional healing methods, the proposed algorithm can heal event coverage holes efficaciously which are resulted from changing surveillance demands and scenarios. The JECHR algorithm can provide an optimal repair method, which is able to adapt different kinds of severe multi-constrained circumstances. Finally, a large number of repair simulation experiments verify the performance of the JECHR algorithm which can be adapted to a variety of intricate surveillance tasks and application scenarios.
Keywords: event coverage holes; mobile robots; multi-constrained circumstances; path plan; wireless sensor and robot networks.