With the maturation of wireless power transfer technology, Wireless Rechargeable Sensor Networks (WRSNs) have been able to provide a continuous energy supply by scheduling a Mobile Charger (MC). However, traditional charging modes suffer from fixed charging areas that lack the ability to adapt to variable sensor distributions. This inflexibility yields a gap between energy supply and utilization, resulting in relatively low charging efficiency. To address this issue, we propose an adaptive charging mode that utilizes beam steering to dynamically adjust the charging area, thereby catering to different sensor distributions encountered during the charging process. First, we build a dual-symmetric steering charging model to describe the characteristics of dynamic beam steering, enabling precise manipulation of the charging area. Then, we develop a charging power discretization based on steering angle and charging distance to obtain a finite feasible charging strategy set for MC. We reformalize charging utility maximization under energy constraints as a submodular function maximization problem, and propose an approximate algorithm to solve it. Lastly, simulations and field experiments demonstrate that our scheme outperforms other algorithms by 43.9% on average.

Benefitting from the breakthrough of wireless power transfer technology, the lifetime of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) can be significantly prolonged by scheduling a mobile charger (MC) to charge sensors. Compared with omnidirectional charging, the MC equipped with directional antenna can concentrate energy in the intended direction, making charging more efficient. However, all prior arts ignore the considerable energy leakage behind the directional antenna (i.e.,back lobe), resulting in energy wasted in vain. To address this issue, we study a fundamental problem of how to utilize the neglected back lobe and schedule the directional MC efficiently. Towards this end, we first build and verify a directional charging model considering both main and back lobes. Then, we focus on jointly optimizing the number of dead sensors and energy usage effectiveness. We achieve these by introducing a scheduling scheme that utilizes both main and back lobes to charge multiple sensors simultaneously. Finally, extensive simulations and field experiments demonstrate that our scheme reduces the number of dead sensors by$49.5\%$and increases the energy usage effectiveness by$10.2\%$on average as compared with existing algorithms.

To improve the charging performance, employing multiple wireless chargers to charge sensors concurrently is an effective way. In such charging scenarios, the radio waves radiated from multiple chargers will interfere with each other. Though a few work have realized the wave interference, they do not fully utilize the high power caused by constructive interference while avoiding the negative impacts brought by the destructive interference. In this paper, we aim to investigate the power distribution regularity of concurrent charging and take full advantage of the high power to enhance the charging efficiency. Specifically, we formulate a concurrent charGing utility mAxImizatioN (GAIN) problem and build a practical charging model with wave interference. Further, we propose a concurrent charging scheme, which not only can improve the power of interference enhanced regions by deploying chargers, but also find a set of points with the highest power to locate sensors. Finally, we conduct both simulations and field experiments to evaluate the proposed scheme. The results demonstrate that our scheme outperforms the comparison algorithms by 40.48% on average.

Benefitting from the maturation of Wireless Power Transfer technology, Wireless Rechargeable Sensor Networks have become a promising solution for prolonging network lifetime. In practical charging scenarios, obstacles are ubiquitous. However, most prior arts have failed to consider the combined impacts of the material, size, and location of obstacles on the charging performance, making these schemes unsuitable for real applications. In this article, we study a fundamental issue of W ireless ch A rger placement w I th obs T acles (WAIT), that is, how to place wireless chargers by comprehensively considering these parameters of obstacles, such that the overall charging utility is maximized. To tackle the WAIT problem, we first build a practical charging model with obstacles by introducing shadow fading, and conduct experiments to verify its correctness. Then, we design a piecewise constant function to approximate the nonlinear charging power. Afterwards, we develop a Dominating Coverage Set extraction algorithm to reduce the continuous solution space to a limited number. Finally, we prove the WAIT problem is a maximizing monotone submodular function problem, and propose a 1-1/e-ε approximation algorithm to address it. Extensive simulations and field experiments show that our scheme outperforms comparison algorithms by at least 20.6% in charging utility improvement.

Benefitting from the breakthrough of wireless power transfer technology, the lifetime of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) can be significantly prolonged by scheduling a mobile charger (MC) to charge sensors. Compared with omnidirectional charging, the MC equipped with directional antenna can concentrate energy in the intended direction, making charging more efficient. However, all prior arts ignore the considerable energy leakage behind the directional antenna (i.e., back lobe), resulting in energy wasted in vain. To address this issue, we study a fundamental problem of how to utilize the neglected back lobe and schedule the directional MC efficiently. Towards this end, we first build and verify a directional charging model considering both main and back lobes. Then, we focus on jointly optimizing the number of dead sensors and energy usage effectiveness. We achieve these by introducing a scheduling scheme that utilizes both main and back lobes to charge multiple sensors simultaneously. Finally, extensive simulations and field experiments demonstrate that our scheme reduces the number of dead sensors by 49.5% and increases the energy usage effectiveness by 10.2% on average as compared with existing algorithms.