A resource allocation algorithm for wide area search ammunitions

Abstract

The objective of this research is to design a decision algorithm to assign weapons (or vehicles) with the appropriate mode of operation to search, classify and attack as many targets as possible. This work also presents the benefits of cooperation among vehicles on the effectiveness of the mission. The advantages of unmanned vehicles over manned vehicles are discussed and the issues in cooperative control of wide area search ammunitions (or vehicles) are explained in detail. The problems involved are posed as problems in motion planning and resource allocation. The functions of the vehicles in all the modes of operation such as search, classify and attack are analyzed. Dubins result [18] is used to solve the problems in motion planning. Also, motion planning with offset is considered to accommodate the fact that the sensor on each vehicle looks ahead of the vehicle. Hungarian and auction algorithms are used to solve the vehicle-target assignment or the resource allocation problem. Auction algorithm is considered for distributed implementation of assignment problems. The advantages of the auction method over other methods, its optimality properties at termination and its computational properties are discussed in depth. All these methods are implemented in a matlab simulation with a maximum number of 15 vehicles searching for targets in a given rectangular area. Also, the targets with different values or destructive capabilities are accommodated for. The results indicate that cooperative classification among vehicles is more effective in searching, classifying and attacking the targets.