Applying Tabu Heuristic to Wind Influenced, Minimum Risk and Maximum Expected Coverage Routes

The purpose of this thesis is to provide Air Combat Command a method for determining the number of predator unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) required to cover a pre-selected target. Extending previous research that employs reactive TABU search methods for deterministic vehicle routing problems, this thesis incorporates wind effects that can significantly alter the travel times for any given scenario. Additionally, it accounts for possible attrition by introducing minimum risk route and expected number of target covered to the objective function. The results of the TABU search and subsequent Monte-Carlo simulation: gives the number of predator's required to cover a target set, identifies 'robust' routes, and suggests routes that increase expected number of targets covered while reducing losses.Air Force Inst of Tech Wright-Patterson AFB OH School of Engineering is the author of 'Applying Tabu Heuristic to Wind Influenced, Minimum Risk and Maximum Expected Coverage Routes' with ISBN 9781423568322 and ISBN 142356832X.