An Optimal Searching Algorithm for the Equipment System-of-Systems Architecture Space With Uncertain Capabilities

Systematic operations make modern wars more and more complicated, thus it is a challenge to design, develop, and select an excellent System-of-Systems. In this paper, we propose an equipment System-of-Systems architecture (ESoSA) formalization framework based on the super network and an architecture space searching algorithm. First, the formal definition of ESoSA and the problem of ESoSA space searching problem framework are introduced, where the searching problem is transferred into a multi-agent dynamic programming problem. Each agent searches for the optimal architecture in its corresponding architecture space, and different architecture spaces may overlap with each other. Second, the objective of the problem is to choose several optimal architectures with maximized sampling rewards and minimized cumulative searching costs. Third, a sequential search algorithm based on decision indicators is proposed to solve the problem. Finally, the proposed algorithm is evaluated by simulation experiments, where the experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is with high quality, and outperforms other benchmark algorithms.