Integral AI-based planning for management of WSNs in military operations

Military tactical scenarios have been shifting to more often consider combat situations in urban environments. Threats in these environments are generally more dynamic in nature, imposing new requirements on sensors and communications systems that support military operations. Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) with a large number of small and mobile computing nodes became the typical solution. However, WSNs demand additional complexity to dynamically manage their tasks, resource allocation, mobility, power consumption, and communication. This paper illustrates the integration of AI techniques into a Battle Management System (BMS) to support military operations in urban environments. The BMS is enhanced with an AI-based planner able to plan tasks, allocate resources, and monitor the WSN operation. The planner takes into consideration energy harvesting capabilities, secure data transfer, and authorization procedures. It generates plans using the information received from the sensors. In case new situations emerge, based on data fusion information, it automatically replans to adapt to the uncertainty in the environment. Finally, it takes into account the coverage between the different components to optimize the communications and better support WSN’s operator(s) and their activities.