Software environment for tactical training with trajectory planning through multiple moving targets

This paper describes a simulation environment for training naval officers and presents details of one of its main functions, planning a secure trajectory through moving targets. For this function we applied the well-known A∗ search to determine the shortest possible path from our current position to the destination without entering the hazardous zone of the targets. We approximate the circular shapes of radar surveillance areas as N-vertex polygons, which significantly reduces computational complexity by limiting the number of possible waypoints. The experiments conducted show that our method can find the optimal solution sufficiently fast such that it can be applied in real-time situations where target platforms continuously change their direction of movement and/or speed.