Team dynamics and tactics in strategies for Human-Automaton Resource Entity Deployment

Abstract

Strategies for Human-Automaton Resource Entity Deployment (SHARED), is a software tool that addresses the challenge of hierarchical decision-making and control for battle planning and management in future combat systems. Its operational and planning hierarchy consists of three levels: Team Composition and Tasking (TCT), Team Dynamics and Tactics (TDT), and Cooperative Path Planning (CPP). In this paper, we discuss a game theoretic approach for the target assignment problem in the TDT. This problem deals with the issue of assigning tasks to units on one side which involves one or more units on the other side. A typical task would be to attack a unit or group of units on the other side. The algorithm used in this paper overcomes issues related to scalability and can handle target assignments with a large number of non-homogeneous units on each side. In the SHARED system, where target assignments need to be performed at successive steps during the battle, the algorithm can be implemented in both open-loop and feedback forms. In this paper, we discuss these two implementations and present simulation results that can be used to assess their performance. Our simulation results show that, the availability of feedback sensor information on target damage, as the battle progresses, will allow the TDT level to optimally allocate the available resources by avoiding the assignment of tasks that have already been satisfactorily accomplished, either fully or partially.