Cow-Path Games in Dynamic Environments: Strategic Search Algorithms for a Changing World

This work investigates multi-vehicle systems in which vehicles compete, among themselves, to capture targets. In line with previous formulations, vehicles have minimal sensing capabilities and limited prior knowledge of target locations. That is, vehicles must actively scour the workspace to find targets. However, the games featured herein have the distinguishing feature of unfolding in dynamic environments whereby targets repopulate the workspace over time. For a variety of such games, we characterize persistent search strategies that enable vehicles to plan trajectories that, in the long-run, prove efficient in the face of inter-vehicle competition and an ever-changing world.