Self-Localization of Wireless Sensor Nodes by Means of Autonomous Mobile Robots

In general, a wireless sensor network consists of a large number of low-cost, static nodes that organize themselves in order to deliver events notification to a sink node in a multi-hop fashion. Typically, nodes are battery driven and are limited in terms of processing, storing and communication capabilities. On the contrary, an autonomous mobile robot is an expensive object, equipped with advanced interfaces and capable of performing complex tasks. The complementary capabilities of these two technologies can be integrated in a synergetic manner not only to enhance the performance of each single system, but also to create novel applications and services.