A Multi-Agent System for ISR Asset Planning

In this paper an approach for an optimal planning of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) asset deployment in order to satisfy the information needs of a commander is presented. Based on the processes of information requirements management (IRM) and collection management (CM), a two-step approach has been developed. In the first step, an operator assigns to each target on which reconnaissance or surveillance has to be performed a set of suitable assets. The operator may assign the suitable assets to a target either directly, based on his experience and knowledge, or supported by an interactive asset selection assistant component of the application, or supported by an intelli-gent multi-agent system, which generates automatically an asset assignment proposal. In the second step an optimal asset assign-ment and execution order is computed. The multi-agent system consists of three types of intelligent agents, a target agent representing the targets on which reconnaissance or surveillance has to be performed, the asset agents representing the assets available to the operator, and an interface agent responsible for the communication with the other components of the application.