Design and Performance of Irregular Sonobuoy Patterns in Complicated Environments

摘要

Patterns for optimal monostatic sonobuoy fields were developed during the Cold War for use in deep, uniform undersea environments, where a simple median detection range can be used to define a useful fixed spacing between sonobuoys. However, oceanographic and acoustic conditions in the littoral environments where current operations are often conducted are so complex and dynamic that spatial and temporal variability destroys the homogeneous assumption associated with traditional tactical search concepts. Several research efforts have been undertaken to design better placements of passive and monostatic-active sonobuoys, but most of these are evaluation algorithms, as opposed to true planning algorithms. A different algorithmic approach, which begins with a random set of sensor locations and then uses genetic algorithms to find a near-optimal solution, was successfully developed and initially applied to monostatic mobile sensors. The genetic algorithm solutions were non-standard search paths that adapted to complex oceanography, to variable bottom properties, and to assumed target tactics D.P. Kierstead and D.R. DelBalzo, Military Operations Research Journal (March/April 2003). A new capability was then developed to optimize the locations (latitude, longitude, and depth) and ping times of multistatic active sonobuoys in a complex, littoral environment. These algorithms are called SCOUT (Sensor Coordination for Optimal Utilization and Tactics). SCOUT contains two major modifications to the mobile-sensor genetic algorithm approach in order to account for bistatic and multistatic sonobuoy fields, where every receiver is capable of observing data from every source. The first is in structure, where a new chromosome was introduced to describe the tactical plan.