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Articles 1 - 25 of 25
Full-Text Articles in Engineering
A Combined Adaptive Tabu Search And Set Partitioning Approach For The Crew Scheduling Problem With An Air Tanker Crew Application, Todd E. Combs
A Combined Adaptive Tabu Search And Set Partitioning Approach For The Crew Scheduling Problem With An Air Tanker Crew Application, Todd E. Combs
Theses and Dissertations
This research develops the first metaheuristic approach to the complete air crew scheduling problem. It develops the first dynamic, integrated, set-partitioning based vocabulary scheme for metaheuristic search. Since no benchmark flight schedules exist for the tanker crew scheduling problem, this research defines and develops a Java™ based flight schedule generator. The robustness of the tabu search algorithms is judged by testing them using designed experiments. An integer program is developed to calculate lower bounds for the tanker crew scheduling problem objectives and to measure the overall quality of solutions produced by the developed algorithms.
Robustness Of Multiple Objective Decision Analysis Preference Functions, William K. Klimack
Robustness Of Multiple Objective Decision Analysis Preference Functions, William K. Klimack
Theses and Dissertations
This research investigated value and utility functions in multiobjective decision analysis to examine the relationship between them in a military decision making context. The impact of these differences was examined to improve implementation efficiency. The robustness of the decision model was examined with respect to the preference functions to reduce the time burden imposed on the decision maker. Data for decision making in a military context supports the distinction between value and utility functions. Relationships between value and utility functions and risk attitudes were found to be complex. Elicitation error was significantly smaller than the difference between value and utility …
Issues In Modeling Military Space, Peter F. Olsen
Issues In Modeling Military Space, Peter F. Olsen
Theses and Dissertations
Fighter Pilots students undertake an intense 120-day training program. New classes of students enter the training program at regular interval. Students endured rigorous academic, simulator, and aircraft training throughout the program. Squadron schedulers ensure the multiple classes and students are scheduled for the activities. Simulator and aircraft training are scheduled individual for each student. Academic training are taught to the class. Aircraft utilization must also be considered. Aircraft Sortie training are also constrained by daylight hours. Additionally, students are limited to a maximum of three training events in a given day. Squadron schedulers must balance these requirements to ensure students …
Compare And Complexity - When Is Compare Not Enough?, Chris E. Greiman
Compare And Complexity - When Is Compare Not Enough?, Chris E. Greiman
Theses and Dissertations
The purpose of this case study research is to determine the utility of COMPARE, the DoD approved software for conducting A-76 competitions, in the more complex world of public-private competition. COMPARE serves as the baseline for establishing cost factors, while two Air Force Depots are used as a basis of comparison. Research questions answered are: 1. What are the baseline cost comparison factors established in COMPARE? 2. What are the common cost factors found in the Air Force Depot public-private competitions? 3. What are the similarities and differences between the cost factors established in COMPARE and those used in the …
How Can The Air Force Maximize The Value Of Reverse Auctioning As A Pricing Technique?, Cynthia L. Marion-Mullins
How Can The Air Force Maximize The Value Of Reverse Auctioning As A Pricing Technique?, Cynthia L. Marion-Mullins
Theses and Dissertations
This research examines the pricing tool reverse auctioning. In a reverse auction buyers state the item they wish to buy and the sellers compete with each other for the sale, driving the price steadily down until no seller is willing to go any lower. Darleen A. Druyun, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition and Management, Washington, D.C., launched the Air Force acquisition reform "Lightning Bolts" initiatives. These initiatives jump-start acquisition reform to find processes leading towards a better, faster, and cheaper way of conducting business. A reverse auction is one of these processes. A review of …
An Evaluation Of Public And Private Sector Housing Alternatives For Military Families, Lawrence P. Kokocha Jr.
An Evaluation Of Public And Private Sector Housing Alternatives For Military Families, Lawrence P. Kokocha Jr.
Theses and Dissertations
This study explored the three primary housing alternatives along with their associated benefits and costs for military members at Robins Air Force Base. Using a case study methodology, qualitative and quantitative data were collected from contract documents, cost records, statements and testimonies to Congress, literature, census data, and interviews with civil engineering, contracting, financial management and legal professionals. This data was analyzed to determine which housing alternative seems to provide the best benefits at the lowest costs for military members and the government. The results of the study indicated that private sector alternatives are less expensive than government provided housing. …
Robust Sensitivity Analysis For Multi-Attribute Deterministic Hierarchical Value Models, Yucel R. Kahraman
Robust Sensitivity Analysis For Multi-Attribute Deterministic Hierarchical Value Models, Yucel R. Kahraman
Theses and Dissertations
The Air Force's ability to deploy, employ, and sustain operations in forward locations is a key to mission success. An integral part of this strategy is equipment pre-positioning, to include: vehicles, aircraft support, consumable inventory, and munitions. This research focuses on defining and developing a model to aid decision makers with the afloat pre-positioning and deployment of munitions in an effort to ensure that the right weapons are available when, and where needed. This research places a particular focus on the strategic, global pre-positioning of the Afloat Pre-positioning Fleet (APF) in an effort to minimize the overall response time involved …
An Integrated Architecture And Feature Selection Algorithm For Radial Basis Neural Networks, Timothy D. Flietstra
An Integrated Architecture And Feature Selection Algorithm For Radial Basis Neural Networks, Timothy D. Flietstra
Theses and Dissertations
There are two basic ways to control an Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (UCAV) as it searches for targets: allow the UCAV to act autonomously or employ man-in-the-loop control. There are also two target sets of interest: fixed or mobile targets. This research focuses on UCAV-based targeting of mobile targets using man-in-the-loop control. In particular, the interest is in how levels of satellite signal latency or signal degradation affect the ability to accurately track, target, and attack mobile targets. This research establishes a weapon effectiveness model assessing targeting inaccuracies as a function of signal latency and/or signal degradation. The research involved …
Spectrum Management And The Global Positioning System: A Case Study In Interagency Coordination, John A. Enis
Spectrum Management And The Global Positioning System: A Case Study In Interagency Coordination, John A. Enis
Theses and Dissertations
At the 2000 World Radio Conference (WRC), a European initiative resulted in the approval of resolutions 605 and 606 (agenda item 1.15), which the United States opposed. These resolutions established provisional power flux density (PFD) limits on the L2 and L5 frequencies of the Global Positioning System. These limits will negatively affect the $1.2B GPS modernization. The United States will have to present its positions and rationale regarding the PFD limits to international meetings, including the 2003 World Radio Conference, to persuade the international community to adopt that U.S. view. Developing the U.S. view and conducting the supporting technical work …
A System Dynamics Approach To Modeling Aircraft System Production Break Costs, John J. Dubelko
A System Dynamics Approach To Modeling Aircraft System Production Break Costs, John J. Dubelko
Theses and Dissertations
This research effort employs a System Dynamics methodology to model Air Force aircraft production break costs. The Air Force currently used the Anderlohr, Modified Anderlohr, and Retrograde methods for the estimation of aircraft production breaks. These methods offer little insight into the dynamic behavior of an aircraft production break. System Dynamics offers a unique way of capturing expert opinions in this area and dynamically presenting behaviors of an Air Force aircraft production line during a production break. Development of this model followed a four-step process of conceptualization, formulation, testing, and implementation. Five Air Force aircraft production break experts in were …
The Management Of Energy Savings Performance Contracts (Espcs), Ericka M. Dailey
The Management Of Energy Savings Performance Contracts (Espcs), Ericka M. Dailey
Theses and Dissertations
Energy Savings Performance Contracts (ESPCs) originated to accomplish several objectives: (1) to meet energy efficiency goals mandated by executive orders and energy policies; (2) to improve federal government facilities using funds allocated for utility bills; and (3) to receive repayment of expenditures through energy savings reflected in reduced utility bills. In ESPC's, the contractor guarantees savings to the federal government agency. 10 CFR 436 limits the time necessary for payback. However, this regulation and others were written prior to the deregulation of utility companies. This theory is based on the underlying premise that the contractor payback is a direct result …
An Analysis Of The Knowledge And Skill Levels Required To Effectively Support Analytical Cost Decisions In Source Selections, Anthony L. Smith
An Analysis Of The Knowledge And Skill Levels Required To Effectively Support Analytical Cost Decisions In Source Selections, Anthony L. Smith
Theses and Dissertations
We analyze these three factors (education, experience, and training) in an effort to identify the knowledge and skills necessary for cost analysts to possess to be effective members of cost panel evaluation teams during source selections. This research effort assesses whether the cost panel members and senior Air Force acquisition military and civilian personnel associate the levels of education, experience, and training as being key factors in fulfilling cost analysts duties while supporting the selection of a source in the government procurement process. To accomplish this objective, a literature review, personal interviews, and questionnaires were utilized. Descriptive statistics and hypothesis …
Selecting Salient Features In High Feature To Exemplar Ratio Conditions, Ismail Aslan
Selecting Salient Features In High Feature To Exemplar Ratio Conditions, Ismail Aslan
Theses and Dissertations
A key tenet to the Air Force's vision of Global Vigilance, Reach, and Power is the ability to project power via the use of aerial refueling. Scheduling of limited tanker resources is a major concern for Air Mobility Command (AMC). Currently the Combined Mating and Ranging Planning System (CMARPS) is used to plan aerial refueling operations, however due to the complex nature of the program and the length of time needed to run a scenario, the need for a simple tool that runs in much shorter time is desired. Ant colony algorithms are recently developed heuristics for finding solutions to …
Identifying Enlisted Stay And Leave Population Characteristics With Discriminant Analysis, Zabrina Y. Hoggard
Identifying Enlisted Stay And Leave Population Characteristics With Discriminant Analysis, Zabrina Y. Hoggard
Theses and Dissertations
The research contribution of this thesis is the first known integrated architecture and feature selection algorithm for Radial Basis Neural Networks (RBNNs). The objective is to apply the network iteratively to determine the final architecture and feature set used to evaluate a problem. Additionally, this thesis compares three different classification techniques, Discriminant Analysis (DA), Feed-Forward Neural Networks (FFN) and RBNNs against several hard to solve problems. These problems were used to evaluate general classifier performance as well as the performance of the feature selection techniques. This thesis describes the classification techniques as well as the measures used to evaluate them. …
Modeling And Analysis Of Multicommodity Network Flows Via Goal Programming, Matthew A. Scott
Modeling And Analysis Of Multicommodity Network Flows Via Goal Programming, Matthew A. Scott
Theses and Dissertations
In this research we focused on the mobility system modeled by the AMC mobility planner's calculator (AMPCALC). We developed AMPCALC as a user-friendly tool and allow the user to easily carry out strategic airlift, air refueling and aeromedical evacuation calculations that are covered in Air Force Pamphlet 10-1403. In this study, Excel software and its macro language, Visual Basic for Application, are our two main tools. In the methodology of the thesis we examined fundamental aspects of the mobility system in AMPCALC. We discussed formulation logic of the mobility cycle. We presented ramp use optimization and tanker optimization processes. We …
Beyond A-76: How To Achieve The Goals Without The Pain, Kurt A. Chelf
Beyond A-76: How To Achieve The Goals Without The Pain, Kurt A. Chelf
Theses and Dissertations
The Department of Defense has determined that Outsourcing and Privatization is key to reducing operating costs and subsequently providing the fiscal dollars necessary to modernize the U.S. Armed Forces. In an effort to achieve this goal, the DoD has mandated that the Air Force study at least 5% of its manning positions for possible conversion to contract. This mandate effects over 200,000 positions throughout the department. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular, Number A-76, Performance Of Commercial Activities dictates the process used to study the appropriateness of these conversions. This thesis explores the usefulness and applicability of this process, …
Task Load And Automation Use In An Uncertain Environment, Mark A. Daly
Task Load And Automation Use In An Uncertain Environment, Mark A. Daly
Theses and Dissertations
The purpose of this research was to investigate the effects that user task load level has on the relationship between an individual's trust in and subsequent use of a system's automation. Automation research has demonstrated a positive correlation between an individual's trust in and subsequent use of the automation. Military decision-makers trust and use information system automation to make many tactical judgments and decisions. In situations of information uncertainty (information warfare environments), decision-makers must remain aware of information reliability issues and temperate their use of system automation if necessary. An individual's task load may have an effect on his use …
An Empirical Investigation Of Critical Factors Affecting The Ability Of Public Entities To Compete In Public Private Competitions, Timothy J. Gilbride
An Empirical Investigation Of Critical Factors Affecting The Ability Of Public Entities To Compete In Public Private Competitions, Timothy J. Gilbride
Theses and Dissertations
In 1996, the Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard initiated the largest ever service acquisition program to re-capitalize Coast Guard assets. Called the Integrated Deepwater System or IDS, this acquisition effort seeks to renovate, modernize, and or replace the Coast Guard s entire portfolio of ships, aircraft, and support facilities. The IDS contractor will be responsible for designing and constructing the system, as well as, sharing responsibility for supporting and disposing of it. This poses a significant threat to the USCG Aircraft Repair and Supply Center (AR&SC), the Coast Guard s aircraft depot located in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. The …
Analysis Of Air Force Contingency Contracting Training Needs, Peter S. Lasch
Analysis Of Air Force Contingency Contracting Training Needs, Peter S. Lasch
Theses and Dissertations
This research examines the Air Force training needs of contingency contracting officers (CCOs). The study utilized the deductive approach to research. A survey instrument captured the data for the study. The survey captured input from CCOs with deployment experience and each of the Air Force components and MAJCOMs. Series 1 of the survey polls CCOs with deployment experience to determine the training CCOs require based on their personal experiences. Series 2 surveys the component and MAJCOM level supervisors to determine their perception of the training that should be required for CCOs. Comparing the two series will identify any differences in …
Ontological Engineering And Mapping In Multiagent Systems Development, Jonathan M. Dileo
Ontological Engineering And Mapping In Multiagent Systems Development, Jonathan M. Dileo
Theses and Dissertations
Multiagent systems have received much attention in recent years due to their advantages in complex, distributed environments. Previous work at the Air Force Institute of Technology has developed a methodology for analyzing, designing, and developing multiagent systems, called Multiagent Systems Engineering (MaSE). MaSE currently does not address the information domain of the system, which is an integral part of designing proper system execution. This research extends the MaSE methodology to include the use of ontologies for information domain specification. The extensions allow the designer to specify information flow by using objects from the ontology as parameters in agent conversations. The …
A Collaborative Visualization Framework Using Jini™ Technology, Chad M. Harris
A Collaborative Visualization Framework Using Jini™ Technology, Chad M. Harris
Theses and Dissertations
It is difficult to achieve mutual understanding of complex information between individuals that are separated geographically. Two well-known techniques commonly used to deal with this difficultly are collaboration and information visualization. This thesis develops a generic flexible framework that supports both collaboration and information visualization. It introduces the Collaborative Visualization Environment (COVE) framework, which simplifies the development of real-time synchronous multi-user applications by decoupling the elements of collaboration from the application. This allows developers to focus on building applications and leave the difficulties of collaboration (i.e., concurrency controls, user awareness, session management, etc.) to the framework. The framework uses an …
Decision Analysis With Value Focused Thinking As A Methodology To Select Force Protection Initiatives For Evaluation, David M. Jurk
Decision Analysis With Value Focused Thinking As A Methodology To Select Force Protection Initiatives For Evaluation, David M. Jurk
Theses and Dissertations
Current emphasis on homeland security/defense is high. Decision makers responsible for enhancing the protection of both military and civilian personnel require additional insight when selecting ideas, concepts, or technologies to pursue with constrained resources. They are faced with multiple criteria and multiple objectives; yet they have no defensible, objective, and repeatable selection process to assist them in making their decisions. This thesis explores whether the value-focused thinking (VFT) process is appropriate for providing the necessary insight to those decision makers. To prove the VFT process is appropriate and viable; this thesis focuses on constructing a value model, scoring alternatives, and …
Modeling The Pre-Positioning Of Air Force Precision Guided Munitions, Daniel P. Johnstone
Modeling The Pre-Positioning Of Air Force Precision Guided Munitions, Daniel P. Johnstone
Theses and Dissertations
There exist factors that play a major role in an enlisted Airman's decision to either stay on active duty in the Air Force or separate. The current force structure of the U.S. Air Force and increased loss of enlisted personnel is a major concern as we look at maintaining manpower to meet the needs of the Air Force. The Air Force is reacting to this low retention problem by increasing the bonuses for initial enlistments and reenlistments, home basing, increasing quality of life for Air Force personnel with enlisted dormitory plus-ups, and under AEF personnel have increased predictability of deployment. …
Quicklook Air Mobility Modeling, Mustafa K. Pektas
Quicklook Air Mobility Modeling, Mustafa K. Pektas
Theses and Dissertations
This research is a framework for understanding issues in modeling the military aspect of space, with particular regard to capturing its value. Space power is a difficult and far-reaching topic, with implications that go beyond the military aspects. The United States military increasingly relies on space-based systems and information for success in daily operations. Telecommunications, navigation and timing, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and weather prediction are instances of services that have become dependent on satellite systems. If this reliance on space is not fully understood, U.S. national security will be at risk as the result of space information degradation or denial. …
Empirical Analysis Of Various Multi-Dimensional Knapsack Heuristics, Yong Kun Cho
Empirical Analysis Of Various Multi-Dimensional Knapsack Heuristics, Yong Kun Cho
Theses and Dissertations
Since the multidimensional knapsack problems are NP-hard problems, the exact solutions of knapsack problems often need excessive computing time and storage space. Thus, heuristic approaches are more practical for multidimensional knapsack problems as problems get large. This thesis presents the results of an empirical study of the performance of heuristic solution procedures based on the coefficients correlation structures and constraint slackness settings. In this thesis, the three representative greedy heuristics, Toyoda, Senju and Toyoda, and Loulou and Michaelides’ methods, are studied. The purpose of this research is to explore which heuristic of the three representative greedy heuristics performs best under …