Using multi-agent geo-simulation techniques for intelligent sensor web management

Sensor webs consist of a large collection of small nodes providing collaborative and distributed sensing ability in unpredictable environments. Nodes composing such sensor webs, are characterized by their resource restrictions, especially the energy, the processing, and the communication capacities. These nodes are also in constant interaction with each other and with their geographic environment. An efficient system aiming at managing sensor webs must take into account the evolution of the sensor nodes as well as the geographic environment. Such a management process involves coping with a variety of dynamic variables including the nodes characteristics, the environment properties as well as the sensed data. In this context, Multi-Agent Geo-Simulation (MAGS) provides a flexible approach that can be used to easily analyse complex systems such as sensor webs in large scale georeferenced environments. The purpose of this paper is to present SensorMAGS, an agent-based geo-simulation system which manages sensor nodes in virtual geographic environments. This system is applied in the context of a water resource monitoring project.