Multi-criteria Path Planning with Terrain Visibility Constraints

How can search theory and path planning concepts be used to formulate and to solve detection search problems in the context of a ground SAR operation while taking into account practical aspects such as terrain visibility constraints? As an answer to this research question, we have formulated a novel detection search problem to include the searcher’s visibility constraints (the Optimal Searcher Path problem with Visibility) and we developed solving techniques for the single criterion and for the multi-criteria cases. In the single criterion case, the search plan’s efficiency corresponds to the probability of finding the search object (i.e., the goal); a mixed integer linear program is presented and compared to our novel Ant Colony Optimization adaptation called Ant Search. The multi-criteria case introduces the searcher’s security and the plan’s complexity as supplementary efficiency criteria; the initial Ant Search algorithm is extended to Pareto Ant Search and to Lexicographic Ant Search.