Cooperative mission planning based on game theory for UAVs and USVs heterogeneous system in dynamic scenario

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present and implement a task allocation method based on game theory for reconnaissance mission planning of UAVs and USVs system. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, the decision-making framework via game theory of mission planning is constructed. The mission planning of UAVs–USVs is transformed into a potential game optimization problem by introducing a minimum weight vertex cover model. The modified population-based game-theoretic optimizer (MPGTO) is used to improve the efficiency of solving this complex multi-constraint assignment problem. Findings Several simulations are carried out to exhibit that the proposed algorithm obtains the superiority on quality and efficiency of mission planning solutions to some existing approaches. Research limitations/implications Several simulations are carried out to exhibit that the proposed algorithm obtains the superiority on quality and efficiency of mission planning solutions to some existing approaches. Practical implications The proposed framework and algorithm are expected to be applied to complex real scenarios with uncertain targets and heterogeneity. Originality/value The decision framework via game theory is proposed for the mission planning problem of UAVs–USVs and a MPGTO with swarm evolution, and the adaptive iteration mechanism is presented for ensuring the efficiency and quality of the solution.