Search Theory
Published Date: April 1, 1986
Search theory came into being during World War II with the work of the Antisubmarine Warfare Operations Research Group (ASWORG). Many of the fundamental concepts of search theory such as sweep width and sweep rate were established by the spring of 1942. Since that time, search theory has grown to be a major discipline within the field of Operations Research. This article reviews the literature on search theory, and provides an illustration of how search theory can be used to solve an optimal search problem.
