Enabling Tactical Pursuit-Evasion Game Strategies via Shaping Task Regulation with Coverage Control

Abstract

Multi-agent pursuit-evasion games are complex. A practical approach to managing this complexity is through policy that seeks to achieve higher-level game-state objectives via localized tactical tasking of teams of agents working collaboratively. Common tactical tasks are field shaping tasks through which the pursuers exercise influence over the evader in order to alter the state of the game. In this paper we develop the mathematics of field shaping, demonstrate how shaping tasks are defined, and indicate how task performance may be robustly regulated using coverage control. A formal general framework for the conceptual description of shaping tasks is provided. The results are validated in simulation of an example tactical task which regulates pursuers to get in between the evader and its target for different pursuer team sizes.