Cooperative Behavior Schemes for Improving The Effectiveness of Autonomous Wide Area Search Munitions

The problem being addressed is how to best find and engage an unknown number of targets in unknown locations (some moving) using multiple autonomous wide area search munitions. In this research cooperative behavior is being investigated to improve the overall mission effectiveness. A computer simulation was used to emulate the behavior of autonomous wide area search munitions and measure their overall expected performance. This code was modified to incorporate the capability for cooperative engagement based on a parameterized decision rule. Using Design of Experiments (DOE) and Response Surface Methodologies (RSM), the simulation was run to achieve optimal decision rule parameters for given scenarios and to determine the sensitivities of those parameters to the precision of the Autonomous Target Recognition (ATR) algorithm, lethality and guidance precision of the warhead, and the characteristics of the battlefield.