Location and routing of armed Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and carrier platforms against mobile targets

Abstract

In this study, we consider a real-life combinatorial optimization problem related to deploying and routing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and naval carrier platforms. In particular, we seek to determine the initial locations for carrier platforms and the optimal type and number of UAVs to be stationed on each carrier platform as well as their spatial/temporal routes for engaging hostile surface targets in the region. Our modeling framework incorporates a number of realistic but challenging ingredients and assumptions such as the mobility of surface targets and carrier platforms during the mission, capacitated multiple platforms and UAVs, UAV-carrier platform compatibility, and allowance for different takeoff/land on platforms for UAVs. In the effort to represent the problem mathematically, we first formulated an Integer Linear Program (ILP) model which seeks to maximize the total time-dependent weights of the targets engaged. Next, we proposed a heuristic solution algorithm based on the ant colony optimization framework. Our computational experiments performed on instances with different sizes showed that the heuristic approach achieves high-quality solutions even for large-size problem instances in short CPU times.