sensors

Article
Cloud-Assisted UAV Data Collection for Multiple
Emerging Events in Distributed WSNs
Huiru Cao 1 , Yongxin Liu 1,2 , Xuejun Yue 2, * and Wenjian Zhu 1
1 School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Nanfang College of Sun Yat-sen University,
Guangzhou 510970, China; caohr@mail.nfu.edu.cn (H.C.); zhuwj@mail.nfu.edu.cn (W.Z.)
2 College of Electronic Engineering, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China;
liuyx@mail.nfu.edu.cn
* Correspondence: yuexuejun@scau.edu.cn or yuexuejun05@126.com; Tel.: +86-020-852-83400

Received: 26 June 2017; Accepted: 2 August 2017; Published: 7 August 2017

Abstract: In recent years, UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) have been widely applied for data
collection and image capture. Specifically, UAVs have been integrated with wireless sensor networks
(WSNs) to create data collection platforms with high flexibility. However, most studies in this domain
focus on system architecture and UAVs’ flight trajectory planning while event-related factors and
other important issues are neglected. To address these challenges, we propose a cloud-assisted
data gathering strategy for UAV-based WSN in the light of emerging events. We also provide a
cloud-assisted approach for deriving UAV’s optimal flying and data acquisition sequence of a WSN
cluster. We validate our approach through simulations and experiments. It has been proved that our
methodology outperforms conventional approaches in terms of flying time, energy consumption,
and integrity of data acquisition. We also conducted a real-world experiment using a UAV to collect
data wirelessly from multiple clusters of sensor nodes for monitoring an emerging event, which are
deployed in a farm. Compared against the traditional method, this proposed approach requires less
than half the flying time and achieves almost perfect data integrity.

Keywords: cloud-assisted; Emerging event; Flying parameters; UAV; WSN

1. Introduction
With rapid advances of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), aerial robots,
especially UAVs, have attracted the attention of both industry and academia. Because UAVs are flexible,
portable, inexpensive, and convenient to use, they have been applied to perform various tasks in the
domains of transportation, agriculture, healthcare, and heavy industry [1–6]. Certain characteristics
such as being wireless, unmanned, and remotely-operable make them appropriate for use in domains
which might be dangerous or difficult for humans. There have been several research studies for
the application of UAVs for the protection of powers plants, inspection of electric power, disaster
rescue, and recording aerial videos for the protection of the environment [7–10]. Traditionally, wireless
sensor networks have been used and one drawback is lack of moving ability for fix-installed wireless
nodes [11–13]. Although many studies have introduced mobile robots to address the problem,
the locomotive capacity of these ground robots can often be limited by the terrain or obstacles of
monitoring sites [14,15]. Therefore, more studies are integrating UAVs or other aerial robots into
WSNs. These systems are called UAV-WSNs and they are well suited for remote surveillance and
emergency response [16–20], especially for events such as landslides, wildfire, flood, etc. In these
scenarios, real-time event surveillance is the basis of the right decision. Furthermore, to some extent,
real-time event detection could save lives and cost.
However, UAV-based WSNs suffer from two major limitations: (a) due to the limited on-board
computational capacity and storage, WSNs based on UAVs cannot perform global optimization

Sensors 2017, 17, 1818; doi:10.3390/s17081818 www.mdpi.com/journal/sensors

Sensors 2017, 17, 1818 2 of 13

algorithms for desired factors such as flying trajectory, and network topology control, (b) since WSNs
and UAVs are powered by batteries [21], energy consumption is a major constraint, (c) there is a
limited consideration of events priority. Therefore, we leveraged the cloud computing infrastructures
to store and manipulate a large amount of data so as to undertake computational optimization for the
behaviors of a WSN and UAV. Next, we provided a novel technique to minimize the energy utilized by
the WSNs and UAVs to improve the duration of the data collection.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows: Section 2 discusses the related work on WSNs, data
gathering using UAVs, current challenges and problems. In Section 3, an efficient architecture for data
aggregation using a UAV-based WSN is presented. The problem description, the mathematical model
and the algorithm based on the emerging event and user interests are given in Section 4. The goal in
this section is to find the optimal flying parameters and the corresponding WSN nodes and clusters.
In Section 5 we discuss the simulation results by comparing our method with other approaches. Finally,
we provide our conclusions and discuss possible future work in Section 6.

2. Related Work and Contributions

UAVs have the ability to enhance the data collection system of WSNs with improved mobility,
scalability, and flexibility. Therefore, in recent years, there has been a growing research interest in
combining UAVs and WSNs for data gathering [22–24]. The related literature on the topic can be
divided into two groups: (a) cloud-WSN, (b) applications of UAV-based WSN and (c) optimization of
the parameters. In this paper, we focus on each of these three aspects, and they are our motivation for
this paper.
Cloud-WSN: With the era of big data coming, the traditional WSN has faced many challenges,
such as data storage, computing, etc., because of WSN’s limit abilities of storing and computing.
So, in [25–27] and other works, researchers have begun to integrate WSN and Cloud for dealing
with these new changes, and particularly the framework of sensor-cloud is proposed. In [27], the
authors proposed a Multi-Method Data Delivery (MMDD) scheme for sensor-cloud users. This strategy
incorporates four kinds of data delivery. Furthermore, in [28], to get good communication, the multiple
mobile sinks (MSs) to help with WSN’S data collection are adopted in the literature, and a time
adaptive schedule algorithm (TASA) for data collection via multiple MSs is designed, with several
provable properties. In [11], the authors proposed a sensing service framework for integrating Wireless
Sensor Networks and cloud infrastructure to impart climate alerts and perform climate analysis at
reduced cost. It is obvious that WSN-Cloud or Sensor-Cloud is an effective way of dealing with the big
data challenges; however, there are few works that focus on the WSN cloud applications and multiple
emerging events.
Application of UAV-WSN: WSNs have been widely applied for parameter sensing in different
environments, especially for deploying emergency applications in harsh conditions. In agricultural
applications, UAV-WSNs have been used for collecting ground sensor data, surveillance crops, spraying
chemicals, etc. In [16], the authors proposed a system for spraying chemicals on crops where the UAVs
were responsible for spraying the chemicals, while the WSNs provided feedback and information from
the ground. In [17], a system was developed for real-time frost surveillance in vineyards. A dynamic
mobile node was carried by an UAV to ensure communication between the sparse clusters located at
fragmented parcels and a base station.
The flexibility of deploying UAVs have made them useful for surveillance special events. In [18], a
UAV-based WSN was applied to surveillance wildfire in forests, while in [19], the authors, built a flight
formation based on UAVs with WSNs and imaging systems. This system can fly over disaster areas
such as wood fires or large traffic accidents. In these applications, for enhancing the scalability, and
overcoming the drawback of the traditional WSN, UAVs play an essential role. They serve as the sink,
sensing, relay nodes in the whole cloud-assisted UAV data collection system. However, these studies
do not consider multiple events and the constrains of UAVs and hence lack the rigorous demands
which practical applications would face.
Sensors 2017, 17, 1818 3 of 13

SensorsRelated
2017, 17, optimizations:
1818 Several researchers have studied the related optimizations of UAV-WSNs. 3 of 12
In [29–31], to improve results, researchers experimented with optimization algorithms such particle
particle
swarm, antswarm, ant gradient
colony, colony, gradient
descent todescent to optimize
optimize the paththe path planning
planning of UAVsofand UAVs
WSNs. and Other
WSNs.studies
Other
studies have focused
have focused on the communication
on the communication protocolprotocol of the system.
of the system. In [32],In [32], aprotocol,
a new new protocol, consisting
consisting of the
of the TDMA
TDMA and PFSand PFS schemes,
schemes, was proposed
was proposed to improve to the
improve the reliability
reliability of the communication
of the communication of WSN-UAV of
WSN-UAV systems.
systems. In [23], In [23], presented
the authors the authors presented arouting
a data-centric data-centric
protocolrouting protocol
to support theto support the
establishment
establishment of a global
of a global gradient that gradient
only sendsthataggregated
only sends data
aggregated
from the data fromof
center the
thecenter
event ofto
thethe
event
datatosink
the
data sink via multiple adjustable routes to increase the reliability. However,
via multiple adjustable routes to increase the reliability. However, these works in the literature arethese works in the
literature are normally
normally based on quitebased on quite
specific specific assumptions,
assumptions, such as the fixed such as the fixed communication
communication load, and the sameload,
and the same
priority of thepriority
sensing of the sensing
event. event.
The current The current
approaches approaches
have have not
not considered theconsidered the different
different parameters of
parameters of WSNs, UAVs and
WSNs, UAVs and other related constraints.other related constraints.
The contributions of this paper are listed as follows. We We propose a cloud-assisted
cloud-assisted UAV data
collection frameworkfor
collection framework fordistributed
distributedWSNs.
WSNs.TheThe approach
approach is based
is based on the
on the correlation
correlation between
between the
the area
area of emerging
of emerging eventsevents andWSN
and the the WSN surveillance
surveillance region.
region. According
According to theto event
the event correlation
correlation matrix,
matrix, the
the collected
collected data data clusters
clusters sequences
sequences are computed
are computed in the
in the cloud and cloud and transmitted
transmitted to the UAV.toMeanwhile,
the UAV.
Meanwhile,
based on globalbased on global information
information including GPSincluding
positionGPSand
position and of
data size data
thesize of theWSNs,
ground groundandWSNs, the
and
UAVthe UAV
basic basic parameters
parameters in terms ofin theterms
flyingofheight,
the flying height,
position, position, time
and hovering and are
hovering time The
calculated. are
calculated. The
performance performance
of our proposal is ofevaluated
our proposal is evaluated
through through
simulation. simulation.
To test our approach,To testweour approach,
implemented
we implemented
a practical a practical
application in the application
real world. in the real world.

3. Mathematical Model and Algorithm Analysis

In this section, to illustrate our approach
approach to
to data
data collection
collection using
using UAV,
UAV, we present the outline of
the algorithm and a mathematical model. We We also
also provide
provide the
the theoretical
theoretical analysis
analysis of
of the
thealgorithm.
algorithm.

3.1. Outline
3.1. Outline of
of Our
Our Algorithm
Algorithm
In the
In the paper,
paper, we we focus
focus on on emerging
emerging events surveillance in
events surveillance in ground
ground WSN,
WSN, and and use
use the
the UAV
UAV to to
enhance the data collection scheme. Figure 1 shows the schematic of the approach.
enhance the data collection scheme. Figure 1 shows the schematic of the approach. The overall system The overall system
includes aa cloud
includes computing platform,
cloud computing platform, aa UAV,
UAV, sensor
sensor nodes
nodes and
and cluster
cluster heads. The process
heads. The process inin our
our
approach after
approach after the
theoccurrence
occurrenceofofspecific
specificevents
eventscan canbebe divided
divided into
into twotwo phases.
phases. TheThe operation
operation of
of the
the mechanism can be described by the following steps: cloud based
mechanism can be described by the following steps: cloud based mission planning and UAV data mission planning and UAV
data collection.
collection.
In the
In the first
first step,
step, if
if there
there are
are emerging
emerging eventsevents inin the
the monitored
monitored area,
area, the
the related
related and
and simple
simple
information is sent to the base station. Next, the cloud computing platform identifies
information is sent to the base station. Next, the cloud computing platform identifies the event-related the event-related
clusters based
clusters based on on the
the position
position of of the
the WSN
WSN clusters
clusters and
and the
the coverage
coverage of of events.
events. Meanwhile,
Meanwhile, the the
algorithm in the cloud is used to optimize the visiting sequence of clusters in
algorithm in the cloud is used to optimize the visiting sequence of clusters in the WSN. Then, thethe WSN. Then, the flight
mission
flight is scheduled
mission to the to
is scheduled UAV.
the UAV.
In the
In the second
second phase,
phase, toto save
save energy
energy and
and shorten
shorten the
the flying
flying time,
time, optimal
optimal parameters
parameters for
for dynamic
dynamic
flying must be decided in advance. In this phase, issues such as rate of packet
flying must be decided in advance. In this phase, issues such as rate of packet loss and data loss and data acquisition
integrity of integrity
acquisition the wireless communication
of the channel are channel
wireless communication addressed areataddressed
the same time.
at the same time.

Figure 1. Topology of a hierarchical Unmanned Aerial Vehicles-Wireless Sensor Networks (UAV-WSN).

Figure 1. Topology of a hierarchical Unmanned Aerial Vehicles-Wireless Sensor Networks (UAV-WSN).
Sensors 2017, 17, 1818 4 of 13

3.2. Mathematical Definitions

To better illustrate the problem and describe the algorithm, we consider the characteristics of the
WSN and the UAV along with actual applications. For this, we provide the following definitions and
the assumptions made in the system:

(1) There are a limited number of ground WSN nodes in the clusters, and the network does not
contain any mobile node.
(2) Within each cluster, there is only one cluster head. This node always has more energy than
ordinary nodes.
(3) Each node has its own unique identification code and GPS position.
(4) The whole wireless network operates on a single fixed radio channel.
(5) The UAV cruises at the same speed during the entire process of data collection.

We consider that there are n clusters in the ground WSN. They are denoted by the set CN = {c1 , c2 ,
. . . , ci , . . . , cn }. Each cluster ci has ni sensor nodes, and each node i has the position Ps (xi , yi ).
Furthermore, we assume that there are m emerging events, denoted by the set UM = {u1 , u2 , . . . , uj ,
. . . , um }. Every event uj has an event radius of Ru with central coordinates Pu (xj , yj ) and an event
priority, denoted by Wu = {w1 , w2 , . . . , wj , . . . , wm }. Based on the above assumptions, we have the
following definitions:

Definition 1. Event correlation coefficient: Let α a ( j) be the total number of nodes in cluster a; and β a ( j) be
the number of nodes correlated with the event j. The event correlation coefficient of the cluster a, given by τa ( j)
is the ratio of the correlated and the total number of nodes in cluster a. This is given by Equation (1):

α a ( j)
τa ( j) = (1)
β a ( j)

The correlation between the nodes and events is the foundation of our proposal. Let ϕ Si , Uj
denote the correlation between a node Si and an event Uj . Let the sensing and event radii be Rs and Ru .


Let D (Si , Uj ) be the distance from the node Si and the center of the event Uj . ϕ Si , Uj can have one of
the two values: 1 or 0, which indicates whether Si and Uj are correlated or uncorrelated, respectively.
Therefore the ϕs (i, j) of the node and the event is:
(
1, if D (Si , Uj ) ≥ Rs + Ru
ϕ ( Si , U j ) = (2)
0, otherwise

We can derive the cluster correlation coefficient Φ(i, j) between the cluster Ci and event Uj , as:
(
1, if ϕs >= 1
Φ(i, j) = (3)
S∈Ci 0, otherwize

Hence, we obtain the correlation matrix ∆m∗n between Ci and UM , where the rows and columns
are the clusters and events, respectively. The ∆m∗n is mathematically written as follows:

Φ11 Φ1n
 
...
 .. .. .. 
∆m∗n = . . .  (4)
Φm1 ··· Φmn

To better understand the essence of the event correlation coefficient matrix, let us consider an
example shown in Figure 2 where the surveillance network consists of three sensor clusters (C1 , C2 , C3 )
and three events (U1 , U2 , U3 ) are trigging the alarm. We find that two sensors in cluster C2 could sense
 Sensors 2017, 17, 1818 5 of 13

Sensors 2017, 17,

the event the cluster correlation coefficient for C2 and U1 Φ21 = 1. In the same way, the5cluster
U1818
, so
1
of 12

correlation coefficient Φ11 = 0, as in cluster C1 no sensor could detect the event U1 . So, the overall
cluster correlation coefficient Φ11 = 0 , as in cluster C1 no sensor could detect the event U1. So, the
0 0 0
correlation matrix ∆ 3×3 =   0 0 0  .
overall correlation matrix Δ = 11 11 1 1. 
 3×3

00 11 1 1

U1 C1
Cluster range

Sensor node
C2
U2 Cluster head

Emerging event
U3
C3

Figure 2. Modelling
Figure of of
2. Modelling Event correlation
Event coefficient.
correlation coefficient.

Let Sc(f) and Sr(f), be sums of the fth column and row respectively. From this, we can obtain the
Let Sc(f ) and Sr(f ), be sums of the f th column and row respectively. From this, we can obtain the
following Lemmas.
following Lemmas.
Lemma 1. Given multiple events occurring in a cluster i, we have Sr(i) >1.
Lemma 1. Given multiple events occurring in a cluster i, we have Sr(i) >1.
Proof. for any cluster i which senses the event j, we have a cluster coefficient Φ ij = 1 . We assume that
Proof. For any cluster i which senses the event j, we have a cluster coefficient Φij = 1. We assume that
there are
there LL
are = {1, 2, 2,
= {1, …,. .l}. ,events
l} events occurring
occurring in in
thethe
cluster
cluster i. Namely, Lk L=kl >=1 .l We
i. Namely, > 1.can
Weobtain the sum
can obtain of
the sum
theofcluster correlation
the cluster correlationas as l
Σijj=
j =1 Φ
l = LΦ.ijSince
1 = k LkL. ⊆ UM , we
Since L ⊆get
U Mthat
, wethe
getvalue
that the ()≥
of value >(1.
of Sr i ) ≥ l > 1.

Integrityof
Definition2.2.Integrity
Definition of data
data acquisition:
acquisition: Let Let ea ( j() )and ε a ( j) (be)the
and benumber of received
the number and total
of received andmessages,
total
respectively,
messages, of the event
respectively, j inevent
of the the cluster
j in thea.cluster
∂a (j) is
a. the ratio
∂a (j) of eratio
is the and ε(a ()j)and
a ( j ) of ( ), namely:
, namely:

∈ ∈( j )( j)
∂∂a a((j )j)== a a (5) (5)
ε a (ε ja)( j)

So,So,
thethe data
data acquisition
acquisition integrity ( ((`(
integrity j )j ))ofofthe
theevent
eventofofj jininWSN
WSNisisgiven
givenby:
by:
n n
Σ ∈ ∈( j )( j)
( j )j)== an=a1n=1a a
`( (6) (6)
 aΣ=1aε=a1(εja)( j)

Definition
Definition 3.3.Total
TotalFlying
FlyingScore:
Score:LetLetFsFbes bethe
thetotal
totalflying
flyingscore.
score.DfDisf is
thethe
total distance
total distanceflown
flown byby
thethe
aerial
aerial
vehicle to to
vehicle gather data
gather dataforforananevent.
event.So,
So,atata agiven
givenmoment
moment(t), (t),FFs sisisthe
thesum
sumofofthe resultsofof α a (( j)) multiplied
theresults multipliedby
bythe
theevent
eventpriority
priorityand
anddivided
dividedby bythe
thetotal
totalflying
flyingdistance.
distance.FFs scan
canbe bewritten
writtenas:as:

 Σ α Σa (αja)(⋅j)w·j w j
a∈ aj∈
∈Mj∈ M
Fs =
Fs =
(7)
(7)
D fD
f

3.3. Acquisition Sequence Design

For an event-driven UAV and WSN, every flight to collect cluster data must consider the flying
distance, correlation and the event priority. In other words, we should strike a balance between these
factors. The goal of this work is to maximize Fs of the WSN and can be formulated as:
Maximize Fs
(8)
subject α a ( j ), β a ( j ), D f > 0
Sensors 2017, 17, 1818 6 of 13

3.3. Acquisition Sequence Design

For an event-driven UAV and WSN, every flight to collect cluster data must consider the flying
distance, correlation and the event priority. In other words, we should strike a balance between these
factors. The goal of this work is to maximize Fs of the WSN and can be formulated as:

Maximize Fs
(8)
subject α a ( j), β a ( j), D f > 0

We formulate the problem of UAV collecting data from WSN for emerging events as a
maximization problem. In this optimization process, the event correlation matrix plays a critical
role. We divide the proposal into two stages. First, according to the distance, we obtain the hierarchal
relation between the node and the cluster. Next, based on the total flying score, we select the correlation
clusters for the UAV. A step-wise greedy strategy is used to deal with the problem. Algorithm
1 describes the rules for designing the path of an UAV for collecting a sequence of clusters from
multiple emerging events. Algorithm 1 works as follows: Initially, CN , Um , Wu , RS and Ru are empty.
Then, parameters values are inserted according to the sensors, clusters and the emerging events.
It iteratively computes the node event correlation ϕ(s, i, j) and cluster event correlation Φ(i, j) using
Equations (1)–(3) (see Steps 1–11). Then, from the Steps 13–18, the Total Flying Score Fs for different
solutions are found according the Equations (4)–(7). Finally, the value of Fs is ordered from Max to Min.

Algorithm 1. Based on the correlation of the flying sequence for multiple emerging events.
Input: Cluster contains the Sensor CN , the emerging event UM , and the event priority Wu , Rs , Ru .
Output: Set of ordering correlation clusters G = {g1 , g2 , g3 , . . . , gk }.
1: Begin
2: for j ← 1 to m do
3: for i ← 1 to n do
4: for S ← 1 to Ci do r
5: if D(s, i, j ) < Rs + Ru
6: ϕ(s, i, j) = 1, Φ(i, j) = 1
7: αi ( j ) ← αi ( j ) + 1
8: end if
9: end for
10: end for
11: end for
12: for i ← 1 to n do
13: if Φ(i, j) > 1
14: Σ Σ α a ( j) · w j
a∈ j∈ M
15: end if
16: end for
17: compute Fs using Equation (7).
18: Ordering the Fs from max to min
19: end

3.4. Parameter Design for the UAV

In Section 3.3, we focused on the problem of searching the correlation cluster for emerging events
from the ground WSN. In this section, we deal with the parameter optimization of the UAV while
considering the characters of ground WSN. This approach can be divided into the following steps:
(1) the UAV obtains the correlation of the sequence of flying over the WSN clusters according to
Algorithm 1. Then the UAV flies over the clusters and establishes wireless links; (2) the size of the
Sensors 2017, 17, 1818 7 of 13

cluster data stored by cluster head is first obtained, and the UAV computes the length of time to hover;
(3) in the third step, the UAV and WSN clusters finish the data communication.
Meanwhile, for the UAV, we use Vf to indicate the velocity of flying and H to indicate the height
of flying. The set G = {g1 , g2 , g3 , . . . , gk } indicates the ordering of the correlation clusters. The
corresponding data set of the sizes of the cluster is given by D = {d1 , d2 , d3 , . . . , dk }. Then, Ts = {t1 , t2 ,
. . . , tk } denotes the set of stay times over the WSN cluster. It is easy to obtain the flying time T, using
the following calculations:
d
ti = i (9)
Vn
k
T = T f + Σ ti (10)
i =1

where, Tf is flying time in seconds of the UAV and Vn is the wireless transmission speed. We assume
that the size of the data of every correlated node is a constant Dc . From this, Equation (9), can be
approximated as:
β · Dc
ti = i (11)
τi · Vn
Furthermore, we can derive the following properties: (1) the number of correlation clusters K is
given by 0 < k <= n; (2) the stay time of the UAV over the cluster is inversely proportional to its event
correlation coefficient. The details of the approach are given in Algorithm 2 which describes the rules
for obtaining the dynamic flying parameters of the UAV in the presence of an emerging event. UAV
flies over the WSN cluster according to the correlation clusters matrix G, and collect data wirelessly, as
described in Steps 2–7. Meanwhile, from Steps 8–10, it uses the Equations (9) and (10) to compute the
hovering time for UAV. Finally, UAV returns to its ground base station.

Algorithm 2. Compute the dynamic flying parameters and parameters for data transmission.
Input: Set of correlation clusters G = {g1 , g2 , g3 , . . . , gk }, Vn , Vf , DC .
Output: Set of stay times over the WSN cluster Ts = {t1 , t2 , . . . , tk }.
1: Begin
2: for i ← 1 to k G k = k do
3: UAV flies over the WSN cluster gi
4: Create a wireless link with the cluster head of the cluster gi
5: Cluster head receives the correlation information from the sensor node
6: Send the di to UAV
7: UAV receives the di , D ← di
8: ti = di /Vn // Compute the stay over cluster time
9: T s ← ti
10: Hover ti , and Begin communication
11: Finish data transmission
12: Fly to the next cluster
13: end for
14: Fly to the ground base station
15: end

4. Simulation and Results

Simulations were conducted to evaluate the performance and accuracy of the proposed algorithm.
After analyzing the simulation results, the properties of the proposed approach were compared with
that of the previous works discussed in related work. Comparisons were performed in terms of
integrity of data acquisition, real time performance, length of flying time and energy consumption.
The simulation parameters, setup and results are given in this section.
Sensors 2017, 17, 1818 8 of 13

4.1. Simulation Setup

To measure the performance of our approach, a simulated UAV-WSN testbed for data collection
was configured. The simulated environment is distributed in an area of 1000 m in length and 1000 m
in width. We assume that (1) Each node has its own unique identification code and GPS coordinate;
(2) The whole wireless network operates on a single fixed radio channel, (3) The UAV works at the
same speed during the entire process of data collection; (4) The value sensing and event radius Rs
and Ru are fixed. In total, 1000 sensors were randomly placed in the field and the whole network
uses a data packet size of 100k bits. The emerging events occur randomly in the simulation area; the
priority and the number of events is also randomly assigned. The flying altitude of UAV is 30 m, and
its velocity is 5 m/s. The sensor node, the cluster head and the UAV communicate using the ZigBee
protocol. Other parameters of the network are shown in Table 1. The simulation runs 100 times, and
the evaluation indexes take the averages.
The virtual testbed is initialized as follows: First, the sensor nodes are randomly deployed on the
simulation site. Then, using the k-means clustering algorithm, cluster heads are created. When the
emerging events occur, the Algorithms 1 and 2 are applied. The parameters of the network are shown
in Table 1.

Table 1. The UAV and WSN parameters.

Parameters Values Parameters Valuess

n 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 Rs 40 m
m 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 Ru 40 m
wj 1~5 H 30 m
Vn 250 kbps Vf 5 m/s

4.2. Performance Comparisons

Flight Time and Distance: To show the performance of the flight time and distance, we compare
the results of our proposal with other methods: (1) the Full Collecting Method (FCM); (2) the event
collection method which considers gathering all the data is called ECA; (3) the event collection method
which considers the event priority is called ECP. Our approach, Cloud-assisted and Weight Event Data
Collection, is called CWC. Figure 3 shows the assessment criteria of the flying time and the distance
in Event-driven WSN (EDRW) using different methods. Experimenting with different numbers of
events and clusters, we find that the flight distance of the CWC methods is much lower than the FCM,
ECA, ECP methods. This is because, in the CWC method, calculating the shortest flying distance
is one of the optimization objectives. In Figure 3a, we plot the results of 10 clusters with different
event numbers. The flying distance is largest using the FCM approach. For ECA, ECP, and CWC, the
flying distance gradually increases with the number of events. This is because the correlation cluster
increases with the event number. Figure 3b plots the results of six event numbers with different cluster
numbers. We see a similar trend in the flying distance for ECA, ECP, and CWC. In FCM, initially, the
performance is better. However, the result gradually decreases and becomes worse after 10 clusters in
EDRW. From the graphs, we can see that our approach outperforms the other strategies in terms of
flying distance. Using our approach, a shorter flying time is used to collect event data from the ground
WSN. Therefore, our proposal has the potential to reduce the energy consumption of the UAV.
 correlation cluster increases with the event number. Figure 3b plots the results of six event numbers
with different cluster numbers. We see a similar trend in the flying distance for ECA, ECP, and CWC.
In FCM, initially, the performance is better. However, the result gradually decreases and becomes
worse after 10 clusters in EDRW. From the graphs, we can see that our approach outperforms the
other strategies in terms of flying distance. Using our approach, a shorter flying time is used to collect
Sensors 2017, 17, 1818
event data from the ground WSN. Therefore, our proposal has the potential to reduce the energy 9 of 13
consumption of the UAV.

4500 7500

4000 6500
ECA
Flying distance(/m)

flying distance (/m)

3500 5500 ECP
CWC
3000 FCM
4500
2500
ECA 3500
2000 ECP
CWC 2500
1500
FCM
1000 1500
5 10 15 20 25
2 4 6 8 10 Cluster Number
Event Number
(a) (b)
Figure 3. Comparison of the flight times and distances for UAV-sink. (a) Flight Time and Distances
Figure 3. Comparison of the flight times and distances for UAV-sink. (a) Flight Time and Distances in
in different event number; (b) Flight Time and Distances in different cluster number.
different
Sensors 2017,event number; (b) Flight Time and Distances in different cluster number.
17, 1818 9 of 12

Integration
Integration of Data
of Data Acquisition:
Acquisition: Figure
Figure 4 shows
4 shows thethe converged
converged datadata acquisition
acquisition integrity
integrity of the
of the
wireless
wireless UAV UAV in EDRW
in EDRW using
using thethe ECA,
ECA, ECP,ECP,
FCM,FCM,andandCWC CWC approaches.
approaches. WeWe cancan
seesee
thatthat
thethe
datadata
acquisition integrity in the CWC approach is higher than that in the ECA,
acquisition integrity in the CWC approach is higher than that in the ECA, ECP, and FCM approaches. ECP, and FCM approaches.
TheThe simulation
simulation results
results withwith 10 clusters
10 clusters andand 6 events
6 events are are
shownshown in Figure
in Figure 4a. 4a.
TheThe
data data acquisition
acquisition
integrity
integrity of the
of the ECA, ECA,ECP,ECP,
FCMFCM and CWC
and CWC approaches
approaches are 63%,
are 60%, 60%, 26%, 63%, and
26%,97%,
andrespectively.
97%, respectively.
In the In
CWCthe approach,
CWC approach, the UAV the can
UAV canover
stay stay the
overWSN
the WSN
nodenodefor afortime a time
which which is dependent
is dependent on the
on the datadata
size,
size, andand gather
gather information
information fromfromthethe relevant
relevant nodes.
nodes. In Figure
In Figure 4b,4b,thethe
CWC CWC hashas a high
a high (greater
(greater thanthan
92%)
92%) data
data acquisition
acquisition integrity.InInthe
integrity. the ECA
ECA and ECP ECP approaches,
approaches,the thevalues
valuesgradually
gradually decrease
decrease with
anan
with increase
increase in in
thethe
event
eventnumber,
number,asasmore moresensor
sensornodes
nodesand andclusters
clustersbecome
becomecorrelated
correlatedwithwiththe
theevents.
events.Thus,Thus,anan UAVUAV must
mustgather
gathermore
moredata, which
data, whichleads to the
leads increasing
to the in the
increasing in amount
the amountof invalid
of
invalid information. However, the integrity of the data acquisition increases slightly, because with an an
information. However, the integrity of the data acquisition increases slightly, because with
increasing
increasing in the
in the eventevent number,
number, FCM FCM hashas a higher
a higher chance
chance to collect
to collect valid
valid data.
data. From
From thethe graph,
graph, wewe
cancan
seeseethatthat
thetheCWCCWC hashas a higher
a higher data
data acquisition
acquisition integrity.
integrity. Therefore,
Therefore, ourour proposal
proposal cancan gather
gather moremore
effective
effective datadata
for for emerging
emerging events.
events. Additionally,
Additionally, for for
thethe ground
ground WSNs,WSNs, thethe clusters
clusters would
would spend
spend lessless
energy
energy andand computational
computational resources.
resources. ThisThis
cancan prolong
prolong thethe
work work life life of the
of the WSN.WSN.

100
Data acquisition integrity (% )

ECA
80 ECP
CWC
60 FCM

40

20

0
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Event number
(a) (b)
Figure 4. Comparison of Integration of Data Acquisition. (a) Integration of Data Acquisition with 10
Figure 4. Comparison
clusters ofin
and 6 events Integration of Data Acquisition.
different approaches; (a) Integration
(b) Integration of Data Acquisition
of Data Acquisition with
in different event
10 clusters
number. and 6 events in different approaches; (b) Integration of Data Acquisition in different
event number.
Total Flying Score: In Figure 5a, the total flying score of the ECA, ECP and CWC are plotted
Total Flying
against Score:
different In Figure
number 5a, theWe
of clusters. total
canflying score
see that theofCWC
the ECA,
has a ECP
higher and CWCscore
flying are plotted
than ECA
against different
and ECP. number
In the of clusters.
former, the ECA,We ECP canand
seeCWC
that the
hadCWC has different
slightly a higher flying
scoresscore
whenthanthe ECA and of
numbers
ECP. In the are
clusters former,
low.the ECA, ECP
However, withandanCWC had in
increase slightly different
the number of scores when
clusters, the the numbers
total of clusters
flying score of CWC
aregrows
low. However, withisanbecause
rapidly. This increasethein CWC
the number
aims toofoptimize
clusters, the total
flyingflying scoreevent
distance, of CWC growsand
priority,
rapidly. This is because
cooperation with thethe CWC WSN.
ground aims toSimilarly,
optimizein theFigure
flying5b,
distance,
we canevent priority,
see the valuesandand cooperation
trends of the
with theflying
total ground WSN.
score Similarly,
of the in Figure
ECA, ECP, and 5b,
CWCweforcandifferent
see the values
numbers andoftrends
events. ofCWC
the total
hasflying
the best
score of the ECA, ECP, and CWC for different numbers of events. CWC has the best
performance in this evaluation index. These values and the Figure 5 demonstrate that CWC approach performance in
thisisevaluation
better thanindex. These
the other values and
approaches forthe Figure
event 5 demonstrate
monitoring. that CWC
Therefore, we canapproach
state thatisour
better than is
proposal
fit for data collection in emerging scenarios.

140 60
120
50 ECA
core

core

100 ECP
ECA 40
 against different number of clusters. We can see that the CWC has a higher flying score than ECA
and ECP. In the former, the ECA, ECP and CWC had slightly different scores when the numbers of
clusters are low. However, with an increase in the number of clusters, the total flying score of CWC
grows rapidly. This is because the CWC aims to optimize the flying distance, event priority, and
cooperation
Sensors with the ground WSN. Similarly, in Figure 5b, we can see the values and trends of10
2017, 17, 1818 the
of 13
total flying score of the ECA, ECP, and CWC for different numbers of events. CWC has the best
performance in this evaluation index. These values and the Figure 5 demonstrate that CWC approach
theisother
betterapproaches
than the otherforapproaches
event monitoring.
for event Therefore,
monitoring.we can state
Therefore, wethat
canour
stateproposal
that our is fit for data
proposal is
collection in emerging
fit for data collection scenarios.
in emerging scenarios.

140 60
120
50 ECA
Flying total Score

Flying total Score

100 ECP
ECA 40
80
CWC
ECP
30
60 CWC
20
40

20 10

0 0
5 10 15 20 25 2 4 6 8 10
Cluster Number Event Number
(a) (b)
Figure 5. Comparison of Total Flying Scores. (a) Flying Scores in different cluster number; (b) Flying
Figure 5. Comparison of Total Flying Scores. (a) Flying Scores in different cluster number; (b) Flying
Scores in different event number.
Scores in different event number.
Sensors 2017, 17, 1818 10 of 12
5. Real-World Use Case
5. Real-World Use Case
In this section, a real-world use case is presented to further explain the benefits of our proposal in
In this UAV-WSN.
a light traffic section, a real-world use case
For assessing theisperformance
presented to of
further
CWCexplain
in real the benefits of we
applications, ourconstructed
proposal
theinwireless
a light network,
traffic UAV-WSN.
UAV control Forsystem
assessing andthe performance
carried of CWC into real
out an experiment applications,
compare we
our approach
constructed the wireless network,
and other traditional schemes (FCM). UAV control system and carried out an experiment to compare our
approach
Figure 6and otheratraditional
shows prototypeschemes
platform(FCM).
of UAV-WSN for detecting the multiple emerging events,
Figure 6 shows a prototype
and this platform includes a variety platform of UAV-WSN
of physical for detecting
equipment, such as athe multiplenode,
UAV-sink emerging events,
sensor nodes,
and this platform includes a variety of physical equipment, such as a UAV-sink node, sensor nodes,
group leaders, etc. System configuration parameters are as follows. The antenna height of sensor
group leaders, etc. System configuration parameters are as follows. The antenna height of sensor
nodes is 0.5 m; the transmission power is 1 dBm; the communication rate was 250 kbps; the
nodes is 0.5 m; the transmission power is 1 dBm; the communication rate was 250 kbps; the node
node omni-directional antenna gain is 3 dBi. The wireless sensors are powered by batteries and
omni-directional antenna gain is 3 dBi. The wireless sensors are powered by batteries and equipped
equipped with CC2530 along with GPS module to get the position. WSN uses ZigBee as the wireless
with CC2530 along with GPS module to get the position. WSN uses ZigBee as the wireless
communication protocol, with a radio frequency of 2.4 GHz. The cluster heads are charged with
communication protocol, with a radio frequency of 2.4 GHz. The cluster heads are charged with
photovoltaic panels. The UAV (a quadrotor) is controlled by an MCU stm32f103.
photovoltaic panels. The UAV (a quadrotor) is controlled by an MCU stm32f103.
As mentioned above, sensor nodes are randomly placed in the surveillance area. After obtaining
As mentioned above, sensor nodes are randomly placed in the surveillance area. After obtaining
thethe
communication
communicationquality
qualityindex
indexand
and its
its coordinate, the ground
coordinate, the groundWSN WSNisisestablished.
established.AnAn auxiliary
auxiliary
computer
computer is connected
is connectedto the
to WSN base base
the WSN station. As shown
station. in Figure
As shown 6, the UAV
in Figure 6, thefollowed this scheduled
UAV followed this
sequence of vesting and completes the WSN data collection accordingly.
scheduled sequence of vesting and completes the WSN data collection accordingly. The The Figure 6b also compares
Figure 6b
thealso
flying path generated
compares the flyingusing traditional
path generated means
using (FMC) and
traditional our(FMC)
means approach.
and our approach.

(a) (b)
Figure 6. Multi-motor UAV sink. Right Flight path of UAV. (a) Implement scene; (b) UAV-Sink flying
Figure 6. Multi-motor UAV sink. Right Flight path of UAV. (a) Implement scene; (b) UAV-Sink flying
path in different ways. Note that, in Figure 6b, the yellow and green line indicate flying path using
path in different ways. Note that, in Figure 6b, the yellow and green line indicate flying path using
traditional means and our proposal, respectively. Red circles stand for emerging events.
traditional means and our proposal, respectively. Red circles stand for emerging events.
It is obvious that the cluster 3 could sense two emerging events, and the value of event
correlation coefficient of cluster 3 is greater than the other clusters. So, UAV firstly collected the data
of this cluster. After three rounds of experiments, we got the average assessment metrics of
different criteria. The lengths flying time of CWC and traditional strategies are 5 min and 12 min
respectively. Meanwhile, the collected data integrity is 99% and 45%, which is more than two
Sensors 2017, 17, 1818 11 of 13

It is obvious that the cluster 3 could sense two emerging events, and the value of event correlation
coefficient of cluster 3 is greater than the other clusters. So, UAV firstly collected the data of this
cluster. After three rounds of experiments, we got the average assessment metrics of different criteria.
The lengths flying time of CWC and traditional strategies are 5 min and 12 min respectively. Meanwhile,
the collected data integrity is 99% and 45%, which is more than two times higher. Therefore, we draw
the conclusion with confidence that the data communication quality between WSN and UAV is
improved while the flying time and energy consumption of the whole cooperative system is obviously
reduced. We make the system more efficient in terms of energy consumption and task response.

6. Conclusions
In this paper, we focus on the challenge of data collection using UAVs, optimizing the flying
parameters such as altitude, flying trajectory, and the hovering time over the WSN. Based on the
conditions of the ground WSN, which includes the quality of communication, and the positions of the
cluster heads, we provided the related mathematical model and analyzed the properties of our method.
We presented a cloud-assisted algorithm for data gathering from an emerging event. Moreover, a
simulation is setup, and our proposal is verified in a real-world surveillance application. The results
demonstrate that our strategy can reduce the flying time, distance, energy consumption and the
latency of data collection. From the analysis of the experimental results, we show that our proposal
outperforms the conventional methods.
The main constraint of this work is that we only considered the task of gathering event data in
UAVs and WSNs using a single drone. In the future, we may need to consider extending our study to
co-operate UAVs for more efficient data acquisition in large-scale emerging scenarios.

Acknowledgments: This work is supported by the Water Resource Science and Technology Innovation Program
of the Guangdong Province, China (No. 2016-18) and the Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong
Province, China (Nos. 2014A020208109 and 2015A020224036). This work was also partly supported by the
colleagues in the Department of Electronic Communication & Software Engineering Nanfang College of Sun
Yat-sen University and School of Information Science and Technology, South China Agricultural University.
Author Contributions: Huiru Cao conceived and designed the experiments; Yongxin Liu and Wenjian Zhu
analyzed the data and performed the experiments; Xuejun Yue contributed analysis tools; Huiru Cao wrote
the paper.
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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