The Multi-pursuer Single-Evader Game

Abstract

We consider a general pursuit-evasion differential game with three or more pursuers and a single evader, all with simple motion (fixed-speed, infinite turn rate). It is shown that traditional means of differential game analysis is difficult for this scenario. But simple motion and min-max time to capture plus the two-person extension to Pontryagin's maximum principle imply straight-line motion at maximum speed which forms the basis of the solution using a geometric approach. Safe evader paths and policies are defined which guarantee the evader can reach its destination without getting captured by any of the pursuers, provided its destination satisfies some constraints. A linear program is used to characterize the solution and subsequently the saddle-point is computed numerically. We replace the numerical procedure with a more analytical geometric approach based on Voronoi diagrams after observing a pattern in the numerical results. The solutions derived are open-loop optimal, meaning the strategies are a saddle-point equilibrium in the open-loop sense.

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