Optimal Real Time Evasion against High Speed Pursuer Using Evolutionary Programming

This paper discusses the use of evolutionary programming to help a fighter pilot or to guide an UAV out manoeuvre a very agile and fast pursuer such as a missile. There are many techniques used to find the optimal evader’s trajectory but these techniques have their specific drawbacks such as being time consuming and computing intensive. This is not acceptable when the solution requires high reliability and must be generated quickly. An evolutionary technique has been developed to search for an optimal trajectory for an evader against a very agile and fast pursuer. In an air combat scenario, the technique searches for trajectories that conform to aircraft’s performance and aerodynamic constraints. Two scenarios were considered. The pursuer simply home-in to the evader and the evader follows the trajectory suggested from the algorithm. In both scenarios, the evader is able to steer itself from interception

Pursuer-evasion strategy optimisation in air combat scenarios

Pursuit-evasion (variants of which are referred to as cops and robbers and graph searching) is a family of problems in mathematics and computer science in which one group attempts to track down members of another group in an environment. Early work on problems of this type modeled the environment geometrically

Unmanned air vehicles II

Unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) are airplanes and helicopters that fly without having a person in the aircraf

Methods of aircraft trajectory optimisation in air combat

We overview methodologies to optimise an aircraft trajectory in a two-player close air combat scenario. In mathematical terms air combat can be considered as a game. However, due to the highly nonlinear equations of motion involved, the use of classical games theory is difficult to implement in a computer simulation. The search for the saddle point of the game is difficult and therefore an indirect approach is required to search for the best trajectory. At each instance, one player is given the role of evader and the other the pursuer. The evader must find the trajectory that avoids or maximises the time to interception, while the pursuer must find a trajectory that achieves or minimises the time to intercept the evader. An algorithm has been developed and implemented using Evolutionary Programming. Simulations show that the algorithm is able to find good individuals (or solutions) in a limited time

Optimizing evader's trajectory in 6-DOF pursuit-evasion problem using parallel evolutionary programming

Abstract. The optimisation of air combat manoeuvre using standard evolutionary programming (EP) algorithm is discussed. The objective is to increase the level of realism in the simulation. This is achieved via employing the nonlinear six degree-of-freedom equations of motion to represent the vehicle. The evader is modelled as a six degree of freedom generic jet fighter aircraft. The aileron, elevator, rudder and throttle setting of the aircraft are set as control variables. The pursuer is a medium range generic air-to-air missile and modelled as a point-mass. The air combat is played in three dimensions. The pursuer seeks to intercept the evader and the evader seeks to avoid interception. The search for optimal evasion solution is conducted utilising evolutionary programming (EP). The optimisation algorithm developed aims to maximise the objective function. The objective function is a self-play simulation between the players. The value of the game is demonstrated as the outcome of the game. The solution that produces the maximum value of fitness is considered to be the best. The optimal solution found is found to be highly dependent on the initial condition. A slight change of the initial condition will result a completely different set of optimal solutions. The computing time is further improved through parallel computing. This is achieved via dividing the solutions into smaller groups and sending each group to different processors for evaluation. As the numbers of processors increase, the time taken to search for optimal solution was found to decrease

Pursuit-evasion strategy optimisation in air combat scenarios

Pursuit-evasion (variants of which are referred to as cops and robbers and graph searching) is a family of problems in mathematics and computer science in which one group attempts to track down members of another group in an environment. Early work on problems of this type modeled the environment geometrically.[1] In 1976, Torrence Parsons introduced a formulation whereby movement is constrained by a graph

Concurrent Engineering Approaches for Sustainable Product Development in a Multi-Disciplinary Environment : Proceedings of the 19th ISPE International Conference on Concurrent Engineering

The CE Conference series is organized annually by the International Society for Productivity Enhancement (ISPE) and constitutes an important forum for international scientific exchange on concurrent and collaborative enterprise engineering. These international conferences attract a significant number of researchers, industrialists and students, as well as government representatives, who are interested in the recent advances in concurrent engineering research and applications. Concurrent Engineering Approaches for Sustainable Product Development in a Multi-Disciplinary Environment: Proceedings of the 19th ISPE International Conference on Concurrent Engineering contains papers accepted, peer reviewed and presented at the annual conference held  at the University of Applied Sciences in Trier, Germany, from 3rd-7th of September 2012. This covers a wide range of cutting-edge topics including: •Systems Engineering and Innovation •Design for Sustainability •Knowledge Engineering and Management •Managing product variety •Product Life-Cycle Management and Service Engineering •Value Engineerin

Optimal Real Time Evasion Against High Speed Pursuer Using Evolutionary Programming

Abstract: This paper discusses the use of evolutionary programming to help a fighter pilot or to guide an UAV out manoeuvre a very agile and fast pursuer such as a missile. There are many techniques used to find the optimal evader’s trajectory but these techniques have their specific drawbacks such as being time consuming and computing intensive. This is not acceptable when the solution requires high reliability and must be generated quickly. An evolutionary technique has been develop ed to search for an optimal trajectory for an evader against a very agile and fast pursuer. In an air combat scenario, the technique searches for trajectories that conform to aircraft’s performance and aerodynamic constraints. Two scenarios were considered. The pursuer simply home-in to the evader and the evader follows the trajectory suggested from the algorithm. In both scenarios, the evader is able to steer itself from interception. 1

Three-Dimensional Air Combat: Numerical Solution Using Randomised Trajectory”, SimTect Conference

Abstract. This paper investigates a complex pursuit-evasion game in three dimensions with complete information applied to two aircrafts in an air combat. Both aircrafts are simulated as point masses with limitations of the flight performance. To find an optimal trajectory for the evader, populations of trajectories are randomly generated for a given time length. The optimal evader’s trajectory is a trajectory that gives the best payoff. The best payoff is a trajectory that guides the evader from being intercepted, and gives the maximum separation distance at the end of the given time length. The pursuer uses a proportional navigation guidance system to guide itself to the evader. As an illustrative example, the study considers the evasion of an aircraft, which is very agile but slower, from a pursuing missile, which is faster but less agile. The aircraft maneouvres are restricted by various control and state variable inequality constraints. Several factors are studied in this paper to see their relationship to interceptability. These factors are intercept radius, turning radius and speed. For the purpose of simplifying the analysis, it is assumes both players to fly at a constant speed. This technique is able to find an optimal trajectory for the evader in order to avoid interception. The optimal trajectories exhibit several well known tactical manoeuvres such as the horizontal-S and the vertical-S, but the manoeuvres need to be performed in a timely manner for a successful evasion. 1