Game-theoretic tactics algorithms for multiple UCAVs within-visual-range air combat

Abstract

Recently UAVs are being used for military missions such as surveillance, strike, combat, etc. with the development of guidance, navigation and control technologies. For the successful Within-Visual-Range (WVR) combat operation, a maneuvering algorithm for the air combat should be embedded in UCAVs (Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles). However, because of the curse of dimensionality, multiple UCAVs air combats which are high dimensional problems cannot be solved directly in real time. Therefore, a tactics algorithm which divides the combat into group-to-group combats is proposed in this thesis. The tactics combines the grouping and sorting strategies which are formulated as matrix games. By solving the grouping and sorting games, the optimal tactics is driven for a combat situation. Numerical case studies demonstrate expressiveness and effectiveness of the algorithm that makes problems tractable.