Title: Modelling and analysis of information-based target searching using mobile sensors

Authors: Tanmoy Hazra; Manisha Nene; C.R.S. Kumar

Addresses: Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Defence Institute of Advanced Technology, Pune, India ' Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Defence Institute of Advanced Technology, Pune, India ' Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Defence Institute of Advanced Technology, Pune, India

Abstract: Target searching is widely accepted as a significant area of study by various research communities. This paper addresses four target searching scenarios in a two-dimensional grid with obstacles, where multiple mobile sensors aim to search a single mobile target in a minimal time. The reachability condition of the target is checked before modelling the problem. The proposed work classifies the scenarios based on information-set available to the mobile sensors and the target. The scenarios are modelled as games that involve two adversary players: mobile sensor and target. The search strategies for the mobile sensors are formulated under different circumstances, and the strategic differences between cooperative and non-cooperative strategies are analysed. Later, the proposed work is extended in a new dimension, where information gain for the mobile sensors is determined by information refreshment interval. The proposed work helps the decision makers by facilitating the search operation in different scenarios.

Keywords: strategies; grid; reachability objective; mobile sensors; game model; payoffs; connected graph; players; transition graph; Markov chain.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSCC.2018.088336

International Journal of Systems, Control and Communications, 2018 Vol.9 No.1, pp.53 - 74

Received: 22 Nov 2016
Accepted: 11 Apr 2017
Published online: 04 Dec 2017 *

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