In wireless distributed networks, where multiple antennas can not be integrated in one node, cooperative Multi-Input Multi-Output (MIMO) techniques help to exploit the space time diversity gain in order to increase performances or to reduce the transmission energy consumption. In this thesis, strategies using cooperative MIMO techniques are proposed for Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) where the energy consumption is the most important design criterion. The performance and the energy consumption advantages of cooperative MIMO technique are investigated, in comparison with the SISO, multi-hop SISO and cooperative Relay techniques, and an optimal selection of transmit-receive antennas number in terms of energy consumption is also proposed as a function of transmission distances. Since the wireless nodes are physically separated in cooperative MIMO systems, the imperfect time synchronization between cooperative nodes clocks leads to an unsynchronized MIMO transmission. The performance degradation of this cooperative transmission synchronization error and the cooperative reception additional noise is evaluated by simulations. Two new cooperative reception techniques based on the relay principle and a new efficient space-time combination technique are proposed in order to increase the energy efficiency of cooperative MIMO systems. Finally, performance and energy consumption comparisons between cooperative MIMO and Relay techniques are performed and an association strategy is also proposed to exploit simultaneously the advantages of the two cooperative techniques.