Developing Mathematical Formulations for the Integrated Problem of Sensors, Weapons, and Targets

Abstract

Although sensor resource management and weapon–target assignment problems have been well studied, there is currently no well-posed mathematical formulation that captures the interactions of these problems in the context of a missile defense scenario. This paper gives a representative example to illustrate this fact; then, it poses a method for navigating the abstraction space for the integrated problem of sensors, weapons, and targets based on the specification of information sharing between subproblems. This method begins by outlining a set of formulation classes to specify the way in which information is shared; from this set, some formulation schemata (particular instantiations of a mathematical models that subscribe to the rules of a formulation class) are suggested. A set of goodness criteria for selecting which formulation classes and formulation schemata best address the problem-absent simulation results is considered. Last, the benefits and shortcomings of these formulation classes and formulation schemata, as well as areas for future work, are discussed.