Stochastic multi‐player pursuit–evasion differential games

Abstract

SUMMARYAutonomous aerial vehicles play an important role in military applications such as in search, surveillance and reconnaissance. Multi-player stochastic pursuit-evasion (PE) differential game is a natural model for such operations involving intelligent moving targets with uncertainties. In this paper, some fundamental issues of stochastic PE games are addressed. We first model a general stochastic multi-player PE differential game with perfect state information. To avoid the difficulty of multiplicity of the players, we extend the iterative method for deterministic multi-player PE games to the stochastic case. Starting from certain suboptimal solutions with an improving property, the optimization based on limited look-ahead can be used for improvement. The process converges when this improvement is applied iteratively. Furthermore, we introduce a hierarchical approach that can determine a valid starting point of the iterative process. As a basis for multi-player games, stochastic two-player PE games are also addressed. We also briefly discuss the games with imperfect state information and propose a suboptimal approach from a practical point of view. Finally, we demonstrate the usefulness and the feasibility of the method through simulations.

The eye and the fist: Optimizing search and interdiction

“…Otherwise, the Recognizer flags the suspected target and calls in the Interceptor. We do not describe in detail the "pursuer-evader game" (see for example [34][35][36]) that may take place after an object is flagged and make the simplifying assumption that once flagged, the object remains stationary at its location until the arrival of the Interceptor. This assumption simplifies considerably the model while affecting only marginally the operational reality because of the different time scales of airborne and surface vehicles.…”

Game of Defending a Target: A Linear Quadratic Differential Game Approach

“…The increasing use of autonomous assets in modern military operations has recently led to renewed interest in Pursuit-Evasion (PE) differential games (Hespanha et al [2000], Schenato et al [2005], Li and Cruz [2006], Li et al [2008]). The PE problem is usually formulated as a zerosum game, in which the pursuer(s) tries to minimize a prescribed cost functional while the evader(s) tries to maximize the same functional (Isaacs [1965], Başar and Olsder [1998]).…”

Game Theoretic Strategies for Spacecraft Rendezvous and Motion Synchronization

“…In the literature most of the studies on the multiplayers differential games are concentrated on the multiple pursuers and evaders scenario. In [39,40] a hierarchical approach to multiplayer pursuit evasion differential game with two dimensional dynamic is presented. In [9] a hierarchical approach is presented where some evaders' capability are higher than those of all pursuers in the engagement.…”

“…An optimized sequential approach for the multiplayer game is in [33]. Different solutions are find in [37,38,42,44] for zero sum differential game.…”