Date of Award
8-2007
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Legacy Department
Electrical Engineering
Committee Chair/Advisor
Brooks, Richard R
Committee Member
Hoover , Adam
Committee Member
Walker , Ian
Abstract
Abstract: The use of game theory to analyze the optimal behaviors of both pursuers and evaders originated with Isaac's work at the Rand Corporation in the 1950's. Although many variations of this problem have been considered, published work to date is limited to the case where both players have constant velocities. In this thesis, we extend previous work by allowing players to accelerate. Analysis of this new problem using Newton's laws imposes an additional constraint to the system, which is the relationship between players' velocities and allowed turning radius. We find that analysis of this relationship provides new insight into the evader capture criteria for the constant velocity case. We summarize our results in a flow chart that expresses the parameter values that determine both the games of kind and games of degree associated with this problem. Pursuit-evasion games in the literature typically either assume both players have perfect knowledge of the opponent's position, or use primitive sensing models. These unrealistically skew the problem in favor of the pursuer who need only maintain a faster velocity at all turning radii. In real life, an evader usually escapes when the pursuer no longer knows the evader's position. We analyze the pursuit-evasion problem using a realistic sensor model and information theory to compute game theoretic payoff matrices. Our results show that this problem can be modeled as a two-person bi-matrix game. This game has a saddle point when the evader uses strategies that exploit sensor limitations, while the pursuer relies on strategies that ignore sensing limitations. Later we consider for the first time the effect of many types of electronic counter measures (ECM) on pursuit evasion games. The evader's decision to initiate its ECM is modeled as a function of the distance between the players. Simulations show how to find optimal strategies for ECM use when initial conditions are known. We also discuss the effectiveness of different ECM technologies in pursuit-evasion games.
Recommended Citation
Pang, Jing-en, "Pursuit-Evasion with Acceleration, Sensing Limitation, and Electronic Counter Measures" (2007). All Theses. 164.
https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses/164