An application of dynamic Nash task assignment strategies to multi-team military air operations

Dynamic task assignment is a critical issue in the control of dynamic systems that are controlled by a multi-team structure. In general, assigning a task to one team requires considering the actions taken by the other teams. An interesting example of dynamic task assignment is the deployment of resources such as in the case of teams of fighting units on each side during a military air operation. An initial deployment of resources and task assignments may not always result in the most desirable outcome. A reassignment of the units to different tasks during the course of operation may then become necessary in order to achieve the required objective. In this paper, the possibilities of changing the initial assignment of certain units, and the deployment of units after completing their initial assignment to other tasks are investigated. Two typical cases requiring specific reassignment strategies are considered. A simulation example of an air military operation that involves two opposing forces is presented to illustrate the results. In this example, the attacking force consists of two teams of units that need to complete two different tasks of varying complexity. Comparison of results with and without reassignment strategies is presented. We show that the use of reassignment strategies, especially when optimization is carried out over a short (two-step) look-ahead horizon, can improve the performance of the overall system and thus provide the leader of the attacking force with a more flexible and effective control mechanism to achieve the desired objective. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.