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156
Probabilistic pursuit-evasion games: Theory, implementation and experimental evaluation
- IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION
, 2002
"... We consider the problem of having a team of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) pursue a second team of evaders while concurrently building a map in an unknown environment. We cast the problem in a probabilistic game theoretical framework, and consider two computation ..."
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Cited by 159 (5 self)
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We consider the problem of having a team of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) pursue a second team of evaders while concurrently building a map in an unknown environment. We cast the problem in a probabilistic game theoretical framework, and consider two computationally feasible greedy pursuit policies: local-max and global-max. To implement this scenario on real UAVs and UGVs, we propose a distributed hierarchical hybrid system architecture which emphasizes the autonomy of each agent, yet allows for coordinated team efforts. We describe the implementation of the architecture on a fleet of UAVs and UGVs, detailing components such as high-level pursuit policy computation, map building and interagent communication, and low-level navigation, sensing, and control. We present both simulation and experimental results of real pursuit–evasion games involving our fleet of UAVs and UGVs, and evaluate the pursuit policies relating expected capture times to the speed and intelligence of the evaders and the sensing capabilities of the pursuers.
Visibility-Based Pursuit-Evasion in a Polygonal Environment
- International Journal of Computational Geometry and Applications
, 1997
"... This paper addresses the problem of planning the motion of one or more pursuers in a polygonal environment to eventually "see" an evader that is unpredictable, has unknown initial position, and is capable of moving arbitrarily fast. This problem was first introduced by Suzuki and Yamashita ..."
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Cited by 109 (25 self)
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This paper addresses the problem of planning the motion of one or more pursuers in a polygonal environment to eventually "see" an evader that is unpredictable, has unknown initial position, and is capable of moving arbitrarily fast. This problem was first introduced by Suzuki and Yamashita. Our study of this problem is motivated in part by robotics applications, such as surveillance with a mobile robot equipped with a camera that must find a moving target in a cluttered workspace. A few bounds are introduced, and a complete algorithm is presented for computing a successful motion strategy for a single pursuer. For simplyconnected free spaces, it is shown that the minimum number of pursuers required is \Theta(lg n). For multiply-connected free spaces, the bound is \Theta( p h + lg n) pursuers for a polygon that has n edges and h holes. A set of problems that are solvable by a single pursuer and require a linear number of recontaminations is shown. The complete algorithm searches a f...
Distributed Algorithms for Multi-Robot Observation of Multiple Moving Targets
- Autonomous Robots
, 2002
"... An important issue that arises in the automation of many security, surveillance, and reconnaissance tasks is that of observing the movements of targets navigating in a bounded area of interest. A key research issue in these problems is that of sensor placement -- determining where sensors should be ..."
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Cited by 108 (4 self)
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An important issue that arises in the automation of many security, surveillance, and reconnaissance tasks is that of observing the movements of targets navigating in a bounded area of interest. A key research issue in these problems is that of sensor placement -- determining where sensors should be located to maintain the targets in view. In complex applications involving limited-range sensors, the use of multiple sensors dynamically moving over time is required. In this paper, we investigate the use of a cooperative team of autonomous sensor-based robots for the observation of multiple moving targets. In other research, analytical techniques have been developed for solving this problem in complex geometrical environments. However, these previous approaches are very computationally expensive - at least exponential in the number of robots -- and cannot be implemented on robots operating in real-time. Thus, this paper reports on our studies of a simpler problem involving uncluttered environments -- those with either no obstacles or with randomly distributed simple convex obstacles. We focus primarily on developing the on-line distributed control strategies that allow the robot team to attempt to minimize the total time in which targets escape observation by some robot team member in the area of interest. This paper first formalizes the problem (which we term CMOMMT for Cooperative Multi-Robot Observation of Multiple Moving Targets) and discusses related work. We then present a distributed heuristic approach (which we call A-CMOMMT) for solving the CMOMMT problem that uses weighted local force vector control. We analyze the effectiveness of the resulting weighted force vector approach by comparing it to three other approaches. We present the results of our experiments in...
Visibility-based pursuit-evasion with limited field of view.
- The International Journal of Robotics Research,
, 2006
"... Abstract We study a form of the pursuit-evasion problem, in which one or more searchers must move through a given environment so as to guarantee detection of any and all evaders, which can move arbitrarily fast. Our goal is to develop techniques for coordinating teams of robots to execute this task ..."
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Cited by 93 (1 self)
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Abstract We study a form of the pursuit-evasion problem, in which one or more searchers must move through a given environment so as to guarantee detection of any and all evaders, which can move arbitrarily fast. Our goal is to develop techniques for coordinating teams of robots to execute this task in application domains such as clearing a building, for reasons of security or safety. To this end, we introduce a new class of searcher, the φ-searcher, which can be readily instantiated as a physical mobile robot. We present a detailed analysis of the pursuit-evasion problem using φ-searchers. We show that computing the minimum number of φ-searchers required to search a given environment is NP-hard, and present the first complete search algorithm for a single φ-searcher. We show how this algorithm can be extended to handle multiple searchers, and give examples of computed trajectories.
Randomized Pursuit-Evasion in a Polygonal Environment
, 2004
"... This paper contains two main results: First, we revisit the well-known visibility based pursuit-evasion problem and show that, in contrast to deterministic strategies, a single pursuer can locate an unpredictable evader in any simply-connected polygonal environment using a randomized strategy. The ..."
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Cited by 91 (12 self)
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This paper contains two main results: First, we revisit the well-known visibility based pursuit-evasion problem and show that, in contrast to deterministic strategies, a single pursuer can locate an unpredictable evader in any simply-connected polygonal environment using a randomized strategy. The evader can be arbitrarily faster than the pursuer and it may know the position of the pursuer at all times but it does not have prior knowledge of the random decisions made by the pursuer. Second, using the randomized algorithm together with the solution to a problem called the "lion and man problem" [2] as subroutines, we present a strategy for two pursuers (one of which is at least as fast as the evader) to quickly capture an evader in a simply-connected polygonal environment. We show how this strategy can be extended to obtain a strategy for (i) a polygonal room with a door, (ii) two pursuers who have only line-of-sight communication, and (iii) a single pursuer (at the expense of increased capture time).
A Visibility-Based Pursuit-Evasion Problem
- SUBMITTED TO THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMPUTATIONAL GEOMETRY AND APPLICATIONS
"... This paper addresses the problem of planning the motion of one or more pursuers in a polygonal environment to eventually "see" an evader that is unpredictable, has unknown initial position, and is capable of moving arbitrarily fast. A visibility region is associated witheach pursuer, and t ..."
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Cited by 83 (1 self)
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This paper addresses the problem of planning the motion of one or more pursuers in a polygonal environment to eventually "see" an evader that is unpredictable, has unknown initial position, and is capable of moving arbitrarily fast. A visibility region is associated witheach pursuer, and the goal is to guarantee that the evader will ultimately lie in at least one visibility region. The study of this problem is motivated inpart by robotics applications, such as surveillance with a mobile robot equipped withacamera that must nd a moving target in a cluttered workspace. A few bounds are introduced, and a complete algorithm is presented for computing a successful motion strategy. For a simply-connected free space, a logarithmic bound is established on the minimum of pursuers needed. Loose bounds for multiply-connected free spaces are also given. A set of problems that are solvable by a single pursuer and require a linear number of recontaminations is shown. The complete algorithm searches a nite cell complex that is constructed onthebasis of critical information changes. This concept can be applied in principle to multiple-pursuer problems, and the case of a single pursuer has been implemented. Several solution strategies are shown, most of which were computed in a few seconds on a standard workstation.
Finding an Unpredictable Target in a Workspace with Obstacles
, 1997
"... This paper introduces a visibility-based motion planning problem in which the task is to coordinate the motions of one or more robots that have omnidirectional vision sensors, to eventually "see" a target that is unpredictable, has unknown initial position, and is capable of moving arbitra ..."
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Cited by 79 (13 self)
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This paper introduces a visibility-based motion planning problem in which the task is to coordinate the motions of one or more robots that have omnidirectional vision sensors, to eventually "see" a target that is unpredictable, has unknown initial position, and is capable of moving arbitrarily fast. A visibility region is associated with each robot, and the goal is to guarantee that the target will ultimately lie in at least one visibility region. Both a formal characterization of the general problem and several interesting problem instances are presented. A complete algorithm for computing the motion strategy of the robots is also presented, and is based on searching a finite cell complex that is constructed on the basis of critical information changes. A few computed solution strategies are shown. Several bounds on the minimum number of needed robots are also discussed. 1 Introduction Have you ever searched for someone in a building, possibly exploring the same places multiple time...
Capture of an Intruder by Mobile Agents
, 2002
"... Consider a team of mobile software agents deployed to capture a (possibly hostile) intruder in a network. All agents, including the intruder move along the network links; the intruder could be arbitrarily fast, and aware of the positions of all the agents. The problem is to design the agents' s ..."
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Cited by 69 (22 self)
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Consider a team of mobile software agents deployed to capture a (possibly hostile) intruder in a network. All agents, including the intruder move along the network links; the intruder could be arbitrarily fast, and aware of the positions of all the agents. The problem is to design the agents' strategy for capturing the intruder. The main eciency parameter is the size of the team. This is an instance of the well known graph-searching problem whose many variants have been extensively studied in the literature. In all existing solutions, and in all the variants of the problem, it is assumed that agents can be removed from their current location and placed in another network site arbitrarily and at any time. As a consequence, the existing optimal strategies cannot be employed in situations for which agents cannot access the network at any point, or cannot "jump" across the network, or cannot reach an arbitrary point of the network via an internal travel through insecure zones. This motivates the contiguous search problem in which agents cannot be removed from the network, and clear links must form a connected sub-network at any time, providing safety of movements. This new problem is NP-complete in general. We study it for tree networks, and we consider its more general version, the weighted case, which arises naturally when considering networks whose nodes and links are of different nature and thus require a different number of agents to be explored. We give a linear-time algorithm that computes, for any tree T , the minimum number of agents to capture the intruder, and the corresponding search strategy. Beside its optimality in time, our algorithm is naturally distributed: if T is a processor-network...
Design and implementation of a sensor network system for vehicle tracking and autonomous interception
- In Proc. EWSN
, 2005
"... networked system of distributed sensor nodes that detects an uncooperative agent called the evader and assists an autonomous robot called the pursuer in capturing the evader. PEG requires services such as leader election, routing, network aggregation, and closed loop control. Instead of using genera ..."
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Cited by 63 (14 self)
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networked system of distributed sensor nodes that detects an uncooperative agent called the evader and assists an autonomous robot called the pursuer in capturing the evader. PEG requires services such as leader election, routing, network aggregation, and closed loop control. Instead of using general purpose distributed system solutions for these services, we employ whole-system analysis and rely on spatial and physical properties to create simple and efficient mechanisms. We believe this approach advances sensor network design, yielding pragmatic solutions that leverage physical properties to simplify design of embedded distributed systems. We deployed PEG on a 400 square meter field using 100 sensor nodes, and successfully intercepted the evader in all runs. While implementing PEG, we confronted practical issues such as node breakage, packaging decisions, in situ debugging, network reprogramming, and system reconfiguration. We discuss the approaches we took to cope with these issues and share our experiences in deploying a large sensor network system. I.
Visibility-based pursuit-evasion in an unknown planar environment
- International Journal of Robotics Research
, 2004
"... We address an on-line version of the visibility-based pursuit-evasion problem. We take a minimalist approach in modeling the capabilities of a pursuer robot. A point pursuer moves in an unknown, simplyconnected, piecewise-smooth planar environment, and is given the task of locating any unpredictable ..."
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Cited by 49 (6 self)
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We address an on-line version of the visibility-based pursuit-evasion problem. We take a minimalist approach in modeling the capabilities of a pursuer robot. A point pursuer moves in an unknown, simplyconnected, piecewise-smooth planar environment, and is given the task of locating any unpredictable, moving evaders that have unbounded speed. The evaders are assumed to be points that move continuously. To solve the problem, the pursuer must for each target have an unobstructed view of it at some time during execution. The pursuer is equipped with a range sensor that measures the direction of depth discontinuities, but cannot provide precise depth measurements. All pursuer control is specified either in terms of this sensor or wall-following movements. The pursuer does not have localization capability or perfect control. We present a complete algorithm that enables the limited pursuer to clear the same environments that a pursuer with a complete map, perfect localization, and perfect control can clear (under certain general position assumptions). Theoretical guarantees that the evaders will be found are provided. The resulting algorithm to compute this strategy has been implemented in simulation. Results are shown for several examples. The approach is efficient and simple enough to be useful towards the development of real robot systems that perform visual searching. 1
