Investigating the computation of smoothed deceptive routes in topographic terrains for agent-based simulation systems

The capacity to deceptively move in hilly terrains is fundamental to agents in simulation systems for tactical and strategic military training. Such an ability to deceive the adversary can ensure a relevant advantage by hiding the real goals of a mission. Using pairs of real and deceptive mission goals, this paper investigates the planning of realistic deceptive routes for simulated agents. With real-world terrain elevation maps, it shows how to explore pathfinding algorithms with relevant path-smoothing characteristics (Theta* and WJPS*, contrasting with the standard $A^{*}$ algorithm) in terrains with pronounced relief features. The study analyzes the effects of terrain elevation costs and the representation of relief contour lines on the determination of more realistic deceptive paths. This work also investigates how users can adjust a Last Topographic Deceptive Point ($L D P_{T}$) calculation to enhance the pathfinding algorithm’s ability to produce more deceptively dense and topographically aware routes. Experimental results for different deceptive topographic path planning strategies are evaluated according to statistical models showing that Theta*, despite being slower than the base $A^{*}$ method in most cases, generated smoothed paths while maintaining a similar deception density for the proposed strategies. On the other hand, WJPS outperformed both in execution time for certain strategies while maintaining the smoothed path characteristic and resulting in a path with lower deceptive capacity.