Doctoral Degrees (Industrial Engineering)

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Browsing Doctoral Degrees (Industrial Engineering) by Author "Colmant, Alexandre"

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    Decision support for response selection in maritime law enforcement
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2016-12) Colmant, Alexandre; Van Vuuren, J. H.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Engineering. Dept. of Industrial Engineering.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In the context of maritime law enforcement (MLE), a human operator is typically required to make a variety of counter-threat decisions following the detection and evaluation of threats at sea. These decisions reside within a so-called response selection process during which MLE resources, such as patrol vessels, military vessels and armed helicopters, have to be dispatched to intercept maritime vessels that are deemed potential threats. Because the number of potential maritime threats can be overwhelming and the nature of the decision process is typically complex, the quality of resource assignment decisions can be improved signi cantly by providing maritime operators with computerised decision support. A generic, semi-automated MLE response selection and resource routing decision support system (DSS) is designed in this dissertation. This DSS is capable of assisting human operators in spatio-temporal resource dispatch decision making so that MLE resources may be employed effectively and efficiently. These decisions are made based on kinematic vessel-related data obtained from associated threat detection and threat evaluation systems, as well as subjective input data contributed by MLE response selection operators. Fully automated decision making is therefore not pursued; the aim of this study is to establish a support tool for an operator. Multiple response selection objectives are accommodated in the proposed DSS in a generic manner, so as to provide users of the system with the freedom of con guring their own, preferred goals. This generic DSS design is populated with examples of models capable of performing the functions of the various constituent parts of the system, and their workability is tested and demonstrated by solving the MLE response selection problem in the context of two realistic, but simulated, MLE scenarios. The MLE DSS proposed in this dissertation may be used in future to assist maritime operators in their complex decision making processes. In particular, operators may use it as a guideline to validate and/or justify their decisions, especially when the level of uncertainty pertaining to the observed maritime scenario is high and/or only parts of the problem may be resolved by hand. Use of this system in a real-world context is expected to reduce the stress levels of operators typically associated with diffcult decisions, while simultaneously improving the overall quality of MLE decisions in an integrated fashion.