Tradespace Exploration for Multiple Collaborative Vehicles

Author

Mrunal DeshmukhFollow

Date of Award

12-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Mechanical Engineering

Committee Chair/Advisor

Dr. Cameron Turner

Committee Member

Dr. John Wagner

Committee Member

Dr. Satchit Ramnath

Abstract

Modern military operations demand systems that adapt to uncertain, rapidly changing missions across diverse terrains. Traditional single-platform vehicle design is insufficient for such complexity. This research introduces a hierarchical tradespace exploration framework for designing and evaluating families of heterogeneous ground vehicles under a System-of-Systems (SoS) architecture. The framework treats vehicle design as a co-optimization problem, where a “parent” vehicle (e.g., a Squad Multipurpose Equipment Transport) coordinates specialized “child” vehicles for reconnaissance, amphibious tasks, terrain traversal, and stealth missions. Unlike conventional approaches that optimize vehicles individually, this study emphasizes collaborative performance, resource sharing, and adaptability at the family level. Central to the analysis are non-functional qualities (“-ilities”): autonomy, resilience, connectivity, emergence, and diversity which shape both individual and SoS level effectiveness. Using Design of Experiments, Genetic Algorithms, Monte Carlo simulations, and Pareto front analysis, the study explores trade-offs among these -ilities and their cascading effects across hierarchical levels. Findings show that coordinated families outperform collections of optimized single vehicles. Emergent behaviors absent in individual platforms enhanced adaptability, while resilience improved by up to 20% with moderate redundancy, though excessive redundancy raised cost and complexity. Pareto analysis identified three dominant strategies; autonomy-focused, resilience-focused, and balanced with balanced families consistently achieving the highest mission success. Sensitivity studies confirmed connectivity and resilience as the most critical drivers of SoS performance. This work advances digital engineering by offering a structured framework for hierarchical co-design, new metrics for family-level trade-offs, and practical insights for building robust, flexible vehicle systems suited to unpredictable modern missions.

Recommended Citation

Deshmukh, Mrunal, "Tradespace Exploration for Multiple Collaborative Vehicles" (2025). All Theses. 4646.
https://open.clemson.edu/all_theses/4646