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

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 (MapQues

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