System and method for generating tactical routes

Abstract

A computer-implemented system and method for generating a tactical route to a battlefield destination including an Intervisibility Analyzer for analyzing propagation of optical lines of sight in a geographic terrain, a Speed Analyzer for analyzing speed of travelers in the geographic terrain, and a Route Generator for generating routes that facilitate tactical movement. The Intervisibility Analyzer and Speed Analyzer are used by a Cost Generator to determine tactical movement costs in geographic terrain. The Route Generator includes a Cost Evaluator for evaluating the cost of an edge during route generation.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]1. Field of the Invention[0002]The present invention generally relates to generation of tactical routes, and more particularly to a method and system for generating geographic terrain routes that balance speed and exposure to potential threats.[0003]2. Discussion of the Background[0004]Soldiers planning tactical routes must ensure that each route allows them to remain concealed from enemy observers yet move quickly at the same time. Creating these routes is a challenging process that requires great effort with no guarantee of desired results.[0005]First, soldiers must gather intelligence on the terrain to be traversed. Often, this comes in the form of topographic maps, aerial photos, incident reports, previous mission plans, and firsthand knowledge. Soldiers operating in areas with more attention and traffic may receive accurate, up to date maps; others, like Special Forces soldiers operating in remote terrain, may receive local maps that are often h...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0019]In addition, the exemplary embodiments blend speed and concealment during route generation, helping to ensure that soldiers can reach the destination quickly and unobserved.

[0020]In addition, The exemplary embodiments mimic the way soldiers actually plan concealed tactical routes. During tactical movement, soldiers accept exposure to the surrounding area, but with every step, try to minimize the amount of new terrain to which they are exposed. This explains why rounding corners, entering rooms, and coming up over ridges are all dangerous movements; they expose the soldier to large amounts of previously hidden terrain all at once. The exemplary embodiments create routes that minimize the amount of new terrain to which route travelers are exposed during travel and do so by minimizing the sums of the sizes of the unions of the sets of points visible to each route waypoint. This key technique is subtly different and yet vastly superior to any existing technique which tries to minimize the sums of the sizes of the sets of points visible to each route waypoint because it mimics the way soldiers actually plan tactical routes.

[0021]In addition, the exemplary embodiments maximize any advantages in weapons range. Soldiers in tactical environments may sometimes desire to move in open areas where terrain allows them to move quickly and their weapons capabilities are maximized for the areas visible during travel. Soldiers moving in this fashion leverage routes through open areas to stay outside the range of enemy weaponry but inside the range of their own weaponry and visibility. The exemplary embodiments generate routes that allow soldiers to maximize the advantages in range afforded by their weapons and have the capability to generate routes that utilize both highly visible and fast terrain, thereby allowing a soldier to more fully leverage any potential advantages in weapons (e.g., 50 caliber guns) or surveillance (e.g., night vision).

[0022]In addition, the exemplary embodiments create routes that facilitate efficient searching between waypoints. Soldiers in tactical environments may sometimes desire to travel between two waypoints while maximizing the amount of visible terrain per unit of distance travelled. Generating a route like this by hand would be extremely difficult for a human. The exemplary embodiments generate routes that maximize visibility per unit distance travelled and do so by exposing travelers to the largest collective area of terrain while minimizing the distance travelled.

Problems solved by technology

Creating these routes is a challenging process that requires great effort with no guarantee of desired results.

At this point, a primary route has been planned, but that is not good enough; on top of that, soldiers will generate at least one more, and typically three more routes to account for contingent and emergency situations.

When soldiers finally embark on the route, there is usually no guarantee that the intelligence used to plan the route has not since changed drastically.

From the above description of tactical route planning, it is easy to see that planning tactical routes correctly is extremely difficult.

First, the amount of time and effort spent analyzing intelligence is decreased because the tool analyzes every single terrain cell.

However, soldiers have not had access to such a tactical route planning tool in the past.

While many civilians benefit daily from analogous route planning tools (MapQuest, Google Maps, and Microsoft Streets and Trips) that help them plan fast and short routes along highway networks, soldiers have simply not had access to that kind of tool for military purposes.

Although the state of the art for path planning and terrain awareness in the field of aviation is well-developed, the state of the art in providing similar tools for ground-based maneuvers is lacking.

Few tools currently exists that suggest intelligent schemes of maneuver on the ground that utilize terrain information such as land cover maps and digital elevation models.

However, the state of the art commonly generates routes that aim to maximize concealment or speed with no thought as to how these factors could be blended to provide a more usable route.

As a result, tactical routes created using state of the art methods often suffer from being too exposed when maximizing speed or too slow when maximizing concealment.

Images