Information Based Framework for Aircraft Integrated Mission Planning
Nan Wang, Tianjiang Hu, Shen Lincheng, Jing Chen · 2010
Mission planning of tactical aircraft is progressively becoming required to enable the ability to accomplish critical functions of flight path control, target searching and weapon delivery. With the development of the planning models, the mission planning task grows from path planning into a polymorphic problem, in which the planning functions/phases are integrated by coupled planning elements. This study involves the development of a flexible framework that implements collaborative planning among heterogenous elements. The framework has a hierarchical structure based on an integrated top level coordinator and bottom level planning elements, and new elements can be defined and added for extensive applications. It performs coordination of the couplings using an information based mechanism without knowledge of the specific models of the planning elements, thus enhances the modularity of the framework. The planning procedure is carried out by iterations between coordinating the couplings at the top level and solving the planning elements separately at the bottom level. A demonstration A/S mission planning problem containing three elements is presented and solved, and the framework was found to perform as expected.