A performance comparison of utility functions for game theory based weapon-target assignment

Abstract

The weapon-target assignment problem has been considered as an essential issue for military applications to provide a protection for defended assets. The goal of a typical weapon-target assignment problem is to maximize the expected survivability of the valuable assets. In this study, defense of naval vessels that encounter aerial targets is considered. The vessels are assumed to have different types of weapons having various firepower and cost as well as the incoming targets may have different attack capabilities. In a typical scenario, in addition to protecting assets, it is also desirable to minimize the cost of weapons. Therefore, an asset-based static weapon-target assignment problem is considered in order to both maximize the expected survivability of the assets and minimize the weapon budget. Thus, a co-operative game theory based solution is proposed which relates the utilities of the individuals to the global utility and reach the Nash equilibrium.