A multi-method approach to evaluate land combat vehicle system

Abstract

This paper utilises Bayesian network (BN), multi-criteria decision making (MCDM), and multi-objective evolutionary algorithms (MOEA) to present a hybrid decision making model for evaluating and optimising the operational impact of different land combat vehicle (LCV) system specifications and configurations. BN is employed to establish a qualitative and quantitative representation of the relations between the variables of the model and calculate standard values of uncertain LCV capabilities like survivability, lethality, etc. MCDM is adopted to integrate the influence of LCV capabilities and calculate the utility value of the selected options. An interactive analysis tool using MOEA is developed to manage the combinatorial nature of the number of LCV system options available and to help the decision maker to avoid any arbitrary selection of sub-optimum baseline vehicles.