Using a Shortest Path Algorithm for Identifying Areas of Interest in An Area of Operations

摘要

Sensor coverage of a unit's area of operations will be critical to maintaining situational awareness for interim and objective force ground units. As such, sensor deployment plans that offer a high probability of covering lines of communication (LOC's) and avenues of approach (AA) while limiting the number of sensors employed will become an important part of the Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield. Manual methods for determining these LOC's and AA's can be time consuming when applied over large areas of terrain. We propose a method that combines mathematical morphology and a greedy heuristic (single source shortest path algorithm) in order to identify channeling terrain along likely routes of enemy movement. The results of the analysis can then be graphically reviewed for quality and used as necessary in the Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield (IPB) process.