wizard1073 -> Ever wonder how large should your search area be? (5/7/2015 11:25:53 PM)
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I finally found and wanted to share from an authoritative source that tied search area, time, searcher speed, detection area, target speed, and cumulative probability of detection. That book is Naval Operational Analysis (2nd ed.) from the Naval Institute Press. On page 136, the equation for a static search area (independent of target speed) is given as: Pd(T) = 1 - exp(-w*v*T/A) where Pd = Cumulative Probability of Detection w = effective sensor sweep width v = search vehicle speed T = total time spent searching A = total area to be searched The term w*v*T/A is called the Coverage Factor. Generally, you must cover a given area more than once to improve Pd to something useful, and this factor tells you how many times you covered the total amount of area. So, for a search vehicle traveling 180 knots, with a effective sweep width of 3 nmi, and a 80 nmi square box (6400 nmi^2), it will take 19 hours to reach a cumulative Probability of Detection of 0.8. If you have only 6 hours and a Pd=0.9 requirement, then you will need to use 4 searchers in four smaller boxes of 40 by 40 (Pd=0.87). A special case of this is searching for a moving target that starts with an known area of uncertainty. If the area is circular with initial radius R and increases in all directions with the target's speed u, then the Coverage Factor now looks like this: C = w*v*T / (pi*R*(R+u*T)) and Pd(T) = 1 - exp(-C) So, for a search vehicle traveling 180 knots, with a effective sweep width of 3 nmi, and a target with a starting uncertainty of 5 nmi and moving at 20 knots, we reach a Probability of Detection of 0.81 after 5 hours of searching, after which we should probably give up. Why? For the moving target, the maximum Probability of Detection, assuming you had infinite time to search, is given by Pd(T -> infinity) = 1 - exp(-w*v/(pi*R*u)) In our example, that is 0.82. You spend 17 hours (after the initial 5) at Pd=0.81 before you reach Pd=0.82. Is it worth it? I hope this helps you intelligently design your search areas and respond to intermittent detections better. You can use this for a variety of missions, from submarine detection to aircraft detection. If the developers add Search & Rescue, then you can use it for that as well.
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