Environmental Monitoring Using Autonomous Aquatic Robots: Sampling Algorithms and Experiments

This brief presents a practical solution to the problem of monitoring an environmental process in a large region by a small number of robotic sensors. Optimal sampling strategies are developed, taking into account the quality of the estimated environmental field and the lifetime of the sensors. We also present experimental results for monitoring a temperature field of an outdoor swimming pool sampled by an autonomous aquatic surface robot. Simulation and experimental results are provided to validate the proposed scheme.