Connectionist architecture for weapons assignment

A computer implemented method for assigning a plurality of fire units to defend a plurality of assets from a plurality of threats to said assets, each of said assets having a relative value and being located in a defined geographic area, each of said fire units having an initial number of weapons and each fire unit having a coverage area wherein said weapons are effective in protecting said assets, said method comprising:

• representing said plurality of assets by a plurality of first processing elements;
• representing said plurality of fire units by a plurality of second processing elements;
• connecting each of said plurality of first processing elements with each of said plurality of second processing elements by interconnections, said interconnections having a strength that is a function of a random noise factor, the number of weapons in a particular fire unit represented by a particular second processing element, a Boolean 1 or 0 depending on whether a particular asset is inside or outside of a coverage area for the particular fire unit, respectively, represented by a particular first processing element;
• adjusting the strength of said interconnections as a function of the relative value of the particular asset represented by the particular first processing element to which said interconnection is made;
• determining a particular interconnection having a greatest strength;
• assigning a weapon from said particular fire unit represented by said particular second processing element connected by said particular interconnection having the greatest strength to defend said particular asset connected by said particular interconnection having the greatest strength;
• and
• determining if the greatest strength of the particular interconnection is less than a predetermined threshold after a weapon from said particular fire unit is assigned to defend said particular asset;
• and
• resetting the interconnection strength of each interconnection when the greatest strength of the particular interconnection is less than the predetermined threshold, wherein the resetting due to the random noise factor allows other fire units a chance to participate prior to assigning all the weapons from said particular fire unit.

A weapons system for defending a plurality of assets from a plurality of threats, said weapons system comprising:

• a plurality of first processing elements representing the plurality of assets, each of said assets having a relative value and located in a defined geographic area;
• a plurality of second processing elements representing a plurality of fire units, each of said fire units having an initial number of weapons and a coverage area where said weapons are effective in protecting said assets from the plurality of threats;
• a plurality of interconnections connecting each of said plurality of first processing elements with each of said plurality of second processing elements, each of said interconnections having a strength that is a function of a random noise factor, the number of weapons in a fire unit, and a Boolean 1 or 0 depending on whether an asset is inside or outside of a coverage area;
• scaling means for adjusting the strength of each interconnection based on the relative values of the assets;
• selection means for determining a first maximum interconnection having a greatest strength;
• assignment means for assigning a weapon from the fire unit connected by the first maximum interconnection to defend the asset connected by the first maximum interconnection;
• and
• threshold means for determining if the strength of the first maximum interconnection is less than a predetermined threshold after a weapon from the fire unit connected by the first maximum interconnection is assigned to defend the asset connected by the first maximum interconnection;
• and
• resetting means for resetting the interconnection strength of each interconnection when the strength of the first maximum interconnection is less than the predetermined threshold.