The current article proposes a new method for gathering energy-efficient data using multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in deadline-based wireless sensor networks (WSNs). This method collects the data of minimum energy WSN nodes by providing the optimal position and trajectory of UAVs, the minimum traveling time, and the minimum number of UAVs in a determined deadline. First, in order to minimize the energy consumption of WSN nodes and determine the positions of where to place UAVs for receiving network node data, the present study clusters the nodes in a distributed form and considers the centers of these clusters as a place to meet the UAVs. Then, beginning and ending virtual nodes are used for controlling the minimum number of UAVs, and it is tried to complete the proposed solution and obtain the minimum traveling time of UAV required for collecting data from the network. In order to find the optimal solution for this problem, a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) mathematical model is presented, followed by followed by the normalization and application of weights on each part of objective function. Results obtained in the simulation step show that the presented model has an optimal performance in providing position and optimal trajectory of UAV, energy consumption, minimum travel time, and the number of UAVs used.

Keywords