Combining Heterogeneous Vehicles to Build a Low-Cost and Real-Time Wireless Charging Sensor Network

A wireless charging system that supports a large sensor network not only needs to provide real-time charging services but also needs to consider the cost of construction in order to meet the actual applications and considerations. The energy transfer between mobile devices is extremely difficult, especially at large distances, while at close distances a wireless, fast-charging, automatic, and high-precision landing system would be required. However, previous studies that used wireless charging cars, wireless charging unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) alone, or wireless charging pads to build a large-scale wireless charging system could not meet the above two conditions at the same time. If we can make good use of the existing high-speed backbone transport, such as the vehicular ad hoc network (VANET), it can not only consider the cost of construction and the speed of movement but also support the real-time charging service required by large-scale sensor networks. In this work, we propose an integration of heterogeneous mobile and charging vehicles, including VANET and UAV net, to provide a wireless rechargeable sensor network with a low-cost and high-efficiency charging system. Moreover, reward mechanisms are also designed to encourage private cars to provide transportation and charging capabilities to UAVs in the designed system.