Abstract
In this paper, an area decomposition algorithm is presented that is suitable for multiple vessels and multiple aircraft participating in maritime searches over a large region. The algorithm can decompose the entire sea region to be searched (deemed as polygonal area) into nonoverlapping subpolygons (search subareas) according to the sizes of the areas covered by various search facilities while considering their search capabilities as well as their corresponding commence search points. The algorithm draws on the concept of a polygon division algorithm in computational geometry. The main novelty in this study is the optimization of the classic polygon division algorithm by introducing a “maximizing-minimum-angle” strategy, which can effectively compensate for the deficiency of the traditional algorithm, as reflected in the area decomposition result. This improved algorithm can produce rectangle-like subareas, especially for a rectangular search region, which is commonly used in maritime search operations. For nonrectangular search regions, a right-angle division can be achieved so that the shapes of the search subareas are more conducive to planning specific search routes for search facilities. Fast maritime search coverage over a large region can be achieved. The effectiveness of the algorithm is validated by comparing decomposition results before and after the improvement.
Highlights
Because the speed of aircraft far exceeds the speed of ships, when an airplane crash occurs on a vast ocean, the sea region involved in search and rescue operations will be enormous
WORK After maritime distress occurs, it is of great significance to save lives and reduce property losses by immediately carrying out efficient search operations to find the target in distress early and implement effective rescue procedures
To ensure the efficiency of the search, when the search region is large and the probability distribution of the target position in this region is evenly distributed, it should be reasonably decomposed into search subareas
Summary
Because the speed of aircraft far exceeds the speed of ships, when an airplane crash occurs on a vast ocean, the sea region involved in search and rescue operations will be enormous. Reference [42] proposed a ‘‘divide and conquer sweep line algorithm’’ for polygon area division, which provides an important reference value for solving the search region decomposition problem. As this algorithm was originally aimed at the division of a multiplerobot workspace, its result is not suitable for maritime search in practice. (1) Determining the subareas of search facilities when a search region is large is expressed as a polygon area decomposition problem, which is solved by computational geometric algorithms. The paper is organized as follows: Section 2 introduces the search area decomposition problem; Section 3 outlines the polygon area decomposition algorithm; Section 4 gives an example of the traditional decomposition algorithm; Section 5 presents the improvement of the algorithm; Section 6 concludes the paper and proposes the future focus of additional work
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