Due to advances in hardware technology, sensors are becoming increasingly common. In addition to forming an important part of the Internet of Things (IoT), many sensors form a communication network called a wireless sensor network (WSN). WSNs can be used in many fields, such as real-time monitoring, target tracking, and object localization.

For a WSN to achieve its full potential, many problems have to be solved, for example, channel access, routing, data aggregation, location identification, and power saving. Many of these problems belong to a class of problems called nondeterministic polynomial time (NP)-complete. In a nutshell, if a problem is NP-complete, it means that it is unlikely that we will find a polynomial-time algorithm to solve it. In plain English: it is very hard to find an optimal solution in a reasonable amount of time.

Then soft computing (SC) comes to the rescue. SC mimics natural phenomena to solve problems. For example, in evolutionary computing, genetic methods (mutation, crossover, and selection) are used to solve difficult problems. SC methods include, but are not limited to, fuzzy logic, artificial neural networks, and evolutionary algorithms.

This is an edited book collecting 11 chapters to exemplify the applications of SC to WSNs. It is divided into three parts: “Introduction,” “Fundamental Topics,” and “Advanced Topics.” Part 1 has two chapters devoted to the introduction of WSNs and SC, respectively. Part 2 explains the basic and more or less straightforward application of SC to WSNs. Part 3 extends the SC concepts and discusses more complex WSNs such as vehicular sensor networks.

It is quite comprehensive in introducing SC and WSNs. It also gives readers a clear picture of SC and WSNs. However, it is misleading to simply state, in the preface, that SC is useful “in solving problems where precise mathematical models are unavailable.” Precise mathematical models can sometimes be constructed. The problem is that it may take a long time to obtain an optimal solution. Therefore, SC can be applied to obtain a solution that may be suboptimal but still acceptable.

Another point is that the editors claim the book is written by “worldwide experts.” However, most of the chapter authors are from India, and four are from Spain.