AUV-aided data collection considering adaptive ocean currents for underwater wireless sensor networks

Autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV)-assisted data collection is an efficient approach to implementing smart ocean. However, the data collection in time-varying ocean currents is plagued by two critical issues: AUV yaw and sensor node movement. We propose an adaptive AUV-assisted data collection strategy for ocean currents to address these issues. First, we consider the energy consumption of an AUV in conjunction with the value of information (VoI) over the sensor nodes and formulate an optimization problem to maximize the VoI-energy ratio. The AUV yaw problem is then solved by deriving the AUV's reachable region in different ocean current environments and the optimal cruising direction to the target nodes. Finally, using the predicted VoI-energy ratio, we sequentially design a distributed path planning algorithm to select the next target node for AUV. The simulation results indicate that the proposed strategy can utilize ocean currents to aid AUV navigation, thereby reducing the AUV's energy consumption and ensuring timely data collection.