Wide Area Search and Engagement Simulation Validation

The use of computer simulation in the development of autonomously controlled unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAV) for wide area search and engagement applications is addressed. Computer simulation is an essential tool to analyze control algorithms designed to optimally employ multiple UCAVs in wide area search and engagement. To be representative of real world mission conditions a simulation must be able to accurately duplicate the performance of the automatic target recognition (ATR) methods that will be used to discriminate between targets and non-targets in actual combat. The objective of this research is to demonstrate a method to validate a simulation's ATR model for use in research of wide area search and engagement control schemes. This objective is accomplished by comparing results of multiple simulations of academically contrived wide area search and engagement scenarios to closed form analytic solutions derived for the same scenarios.