Threat netting for real-time, intelligent route planners

Route planning algorithms are an important component of many diverse applications, including military operations. Standard route planning algorithms usually generate a minimum cost route based on a predetermined cost function. Unfortunately, such a route may not represent a desirable solution for different military scenarios. In this paper, we present a mission adaptable route planner which accurately and efficiently generates routes through a battlefield environment. The approach can handle various constraints on the resultant route, such as maximum route length, minimum distance between turns, maximum turning angle, fixed goal approach vector, etc. Furthermore, the approach takes into account the concept of threat netting, in which the lethality of traversing an enemy threat location varies based on which threat regions were previously traversed (since threats may communicate battlefield information to each other). Routes generated by this approach can be replanned in real-time as new battlefield information becomes available.