Dynamic Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Routing with a Java-Encoded Reactive Tabu Search Metaheuristic

In this paper we consider the dynamic routing of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) currently in operational use with the US Air Force. Dynamic vehicle routing problems (VRP) have always been challenging, and the airborne version of the VRP adds dimensions and difficulties not present in typical ground-based applications. Previous UAV routing work has focused on primarily on static, pre-planned situations; however, scheduling military operations, which are often ad-hoc, drives the need for a dynamic route solver that can respond to rapidly evolving problem constraints. With these considerations in mind, we examine the use of a Java-encoded metaheuristic to solve these dynamic routing problems, explore its operation with several general problem classes, and look at the advantages it provides in sample UAV routing problems. The end routine provides routing information for a UAV virtual battlespace simulation and allows dynamic routing of operational missions.