CIRCLE: An Architecture for Wide-Area Environment Observation

Abstract

Environment observation has significant progress with the development of information and communication technology in the past 20 years. In this manuscript, we propose an architecture for wide-area environment observation, called CIRCLE, which includes five components: location tracker, terrestrial fixed type unit, terrestrial movable type unit, aerial unit, and water unit. We concern four aspects for an application-oriented cooperation mechanism: synchronization, location estimation, sensing/status data transmission, and cooperation standardization. We also discuss water observation system using underwater vehicle and terrestrial network, called WALRUS. We set up real-world system and perform series of experiments using underwater vehicle, environment sensor, data collector, and cellular and capillary communication technologies.