A Talgini - Faculty of Electrical Engineering Najafabad University Isfahan, IRAN
V Shakarami - Faculty of Electrical Engineering Najafabad University Isfahan, IRAN
F Sheikholeslam - Faculty of Electrical Engineering Isfahan Sanati University Isfahan, IRAN
A Chatraei - Faculty of Electrical Engineering Isfahan Sanati University Isfahan, IRAN

In wireless sensor networks (WSN), mobility or energy constraints of nodes can lead to network partitioning. In this paper, aerial platform (AP) was used as a relay node inorder to provide full connectivity to a disconnected ground WSN. Moreover, the Fuzzy K-means clustering algorithm was used to find suitable locations for placing APs so that the number of APs would be minimized. The comparison of the results of the proposed algorithm with the optimal exhaustive search algorithm characterized it as nearly optimal.

Aerial platform; Relay node placement;Fuzzy K-means clustering; Wireless Sensor Network