Performance bounds for coordinated AUV search planning

This paper establishes plausible limits on search performance for a set of AUVs participating in a coordinated undersea search operation. We build on previously developed cell based methods for evaluating search performance under conditions of geospatial non-homogeneity in detection likelihood and search object placement. To establish performance bounds, a theoretical template provided in the communications channel is adapted for development of an analogous AUV search channel. The concept of search capacity is introduced and developed in this paper. From a simple cell search capacity, search channel configurations are devised to suit specific search performance objectives and to demonstrate the generality of the performance bound when applied to search. This information theoretic performance measure is shown to support decomposition over search subspaces allowing for plausible inference in AUV search planning and post operation evaluation under geospatial non-homogeneity. Results are presented to demonstrate the validity of the performance bounds and their inherent capability to measure the collaboration potential among searchers.