315 research outputs found
Parameterized pursuit-evasion games
AbstractWe study the parameterized complexity of four variants of pursuit-evasion on graphs: Seeded Pursuit Evasion, Short Seeded Pursuit Evasion, Directed Pursuit Evasion and Short Directed Pursuit Evasion. Both Seeded Pursuit Evasion and Short Seeded Pursuit Evasion are played on undirected graphs with given starting positions for both the cops and the robber. Directed Pursuit Evasion and its short variant are played on directed graphs, with the players free to choose their starting positions. We show for Seeded Pursuit Evasion and Directed Pursuit Evasion that finding a winning strategy for the cops is AW[*]-hard when we parameterize by the number of cops. Further, we show that the short (k-move) variants of these problems (Short Seeded Pursuit Evasion and Short Directed Pursuit Evasion) are AW[*]-complete when we parameterize by both the number of cops and turns
Parameterized Analysis of the Cops and Robber Game
Pursuit-evasion games have been intensively studied for several decades due to their numerous applications in artificial intelligence, robot motion planning, database theory, distributed computing, and algorithmic theory. Cops and Robber (CnR) is one of the most well-known pursuit-evasion games played on graphs, where multiple cops pursue a single robber. The aim is to compute the cop number of a graph, k, which is the minimum number of cops that ensures the capture of the robber.
From the viewpoint of parameterized complexity, CnR is W[2]-hard parameterized by k [Fomin et al., TCS, 2010]. Thus, we study structural parameters of the input graph. We begin with the vertex cover number (vcn). First, we establish that k ? vcn/3+1. Second, we prove that CnR parameterized by vcn is FPT by designing an exponential kernel. We complement this result by showing that it is unlikely for CnR parameterized by vcn to admit a polynomial compression. We extend our exponential kernels to the parameters cluster vertex deletion number and deletion to stars number, and design a linear vertex kernel for neighborhood diversity. Additionally, we extend all of our results to several well-studied variations of CnR
Positive Alexander Duality for Pursuit and Evasion
Considered is a class of pursuit-evasion games, in which an evader tries to
avoid detection. Such games can be formulated as the search for sections to the
complement of a coverage region in a Euclidean space over a timeline. Prior
results give homological criteria for evasion in the general case that are not
necessary and sufficient. This paper provides a necessary and sufficient
positive cohomological criterion for evasion in a general case. The principal
tools are (1) a refinement of the Cech cohomology of a coverage region with a
positive cone encoding spatial orientation, (2) a refinement of the Borel-Moore
homology of the coverage gaps with a positive cone encoding time orientation,
and (3) a positive variant of Alexander Duality. Positive cohomology decomposes
as the global sections of a sheaf of local positive cohomology over the time
axis; we show how this decomposition makes positive cohomology computable as a
linear program.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures; improvements made throughout: e.g. positive
(co)homology generalized to arbitrary degrees; Positive Alexander Duality
generalized from homological degrees 0,1; Morse and smoothness conditions
generalized; illustrations of positive homology added. minor corrections in
proofs, notation, organization, and language made throughout. variant of
Borel-Moore homology now use
Two-Dimensional Pursuit-Evasion in a Compact Domain with Piecewise Analytic Boundary
In a pursuit-evasion game, a team of pursuers attempt to capture an evader.
The players alternate turns, move with equal speed, and have full information
about the state of the game. We consider the most restictive capture condition:
a pursuer must become colocated with the evader to win the game. We prove two
general results about pursuit-evasion games in topological spaces. First, we
show that one pursuer has a winning strategy in any CAT(0) space under this
restrictive capture criterion. This complements a result of Alexander, Bishop
and Ghrist, who provide a winning strategy for a game with positive capture
radius. Second, we consider the game played in a compact domain in Euclidean
two-space with piecewise analytic boundary and arbitrary Euler characteristic.
We show that three pursuers always have a winning strategy by extending recent
work of Bhadauria, Klein, Isler and Suri from polygonal environments to our
more general setting.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figure
Escape Regions of the Active Target Defense Differential Game
The active target defense differential game is addressed in this paper. In
this differential game an Attacker missile pursues a Target aircraft. The
aircraft is however aided by a Defender missile launched by, say, the wingman,
to intercept the Attacker before it reaches the Target aircraft. Thus, a team
is formed by the Target and the Defender which cooperate to maximize the
separation between the Target aircraft and the point where the Attacker missile
is intercepted by the Defender missile, while the Attacker simultaneously tries
to minimize said distance. This paper focuses on characterizing the set of
coordinates such that if the Target's initial position belong to this set then
its survival is guaranteed if both the Target and the Defender follow their
optimal strategies. Such optimal strategies are presented in this paper as
well.Comment: 19 pages, 9 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with
arXiv:1502.0274
How to Guard a Graph?
We initiate the study of the algorithmic foundations of games in which a set of cops has to guard a region in a graph (or digraph) against a robber. The robber and the cops are placed on vertices of the graph; they take turns in moving to adjacent vertices (or staying). The goal of the robber is to enter the guarded region at a vertex with no cop on it. The problem is to find the minimum number of cops needed to prevent the robber from entering the guarded region. The problem is highly non-trivial even if the robber's or the cops' regions are restricted to very simple graphs. The computational complexity of the problem depends heavily on the chosen restriction. In particular, if the robber's region is only a path, then the problem can be solved in polynomial time. When the robber moves in a tree (or even in a star), then the decision version of the problem is NP-complete. Furthermore, if the robber is moving in a directed acyclic graph, the problem becomes PSPACE-complet
Dynamic network analysis of a target defense differential game with limited observations
In this paper, we study a Target-Attacker-Defender (TAD) differential game
involving one attacker, one target and multiple defenders. We consider two
variations where (a) the attacker and the target have unlimited observation
range and the defenders are visibility constrained (b) only the attacker has
unlimited observation range and the remaining players are visibility
constrained. We model the players' interactions as a dynamic game with
asymmetric information. Here, the visibility constraints of the players induce
a visibility network which encapsulates the visibility information during the
evolution of the game. Based on this observation, we introduce network adapted
feedback or implementable strategies for visibility constrained players. Using
inverse game theory approach we obtain network adapted feedback Nash
equilibrium strategies. We introduce a consistency criterion for selecting a
subset (or refinement) of network adapted feedback Nash strategies, and provide
an optimization based approach for computing them. Finally, we illustrate our
results with numerical experiments.Comment: 8 figure
Recontamination Helps a Lot to Hunt a Rabbit
The Hunters and Rabbit game is played on a graph G where the Hunter player shoots at k vertices in every round while the Rabbit player occupies an unknown vertex and, if it is not shot, must move to a neighbouring vertex after each round. The Rabbit player wins if it can ensure that its position is never shot. The Hunter player wins otherwise. The hunter number h(G) of a graph G is the minimum integer k such that the Hunter player has a winning strategy (i.e., allowing him to win whatever be the strategy of the Rabbit player). This game has been studied in several graph classes, in particular in bipartite graphs (grids, trees, hypercubes...), but the computational complexity of computing h(G) remains open in general graphs and even in more restricted graph classes such as trees. To progress further in this study, we propose a notion of monotonicity (a well-studied and useful property in classical pursuit-evasion games such as Graph Searching games) for the Hunters and Rabbit game imposing that, roughly, a vertex that has already been shot "must not host the rabbit anymore". This allows us to obtain new results in various graph classes.
More precisely, let the monotone hunter number mh(G) of a graph G be the minimum integer k such that the Hunter player has a monotone winning strategy. We show that pw(G) ? mh(G) ? pw(G)+1 for any graph G with pathwidth pw(G), which implies that computing mh(G), or even approximating mh(G) up to an additive constant, is NP-hard. Then, we show that mh(G) can be computed in polynomial time in split graphs, interval graphs, cographs and trees. These results go through structural characterisations which allow us to relate the monotone hunter number with the pathwidth in some of these graph classes. In all cases, this allows us to specify the hunter number or to show that there may be an arbitrary gap between h and mh, i.e., that monotonicity does not help. In particular, we show that, for every k ? 3, there exists a tree T with h(T) = 2 and mh(T) = k. We conclude by proving that computing h (resp., mh) is FPT parameterised by the minimum size of a vertex cover
Dagstuhl Reports : Volume 1, Issue 2, February 2011
Online Privacy: Towards Informational Self-Determination on the Internet (Dagstuhl Perspectives Workshop 11061) : Simone Fischer-Hübner, Chris Hoofnagle, Kai Rannenberg, Michael Waidner, Ioannis Krontiris and Michael Marhöfer Self-Repairing Programs (Dagstuhl Seminar 11062) : Mauro Pezzé, Martin C. Rinard, Westley Weimer and Andreas Zeller Theory and Applications of Graph Searching Problems (Dagstuhl Seminar 11071) : Fedor V. Fomin, Pierre Fraigniaud, Stephan Kreutzer and Dimitrios M. Thilikos Combinatorial and Algorithmic Aspects of Sequence Processing (Dagstuhl Seminar 11081) : Maxime Crochemore, Lila Kari, Mehryar Mohri and Dirk Nowotka Packing and Scheduling Algorithms for Information and Communication Services (Dagstuhl Seminar 11091) Klaus Jansen, Claire Mathieu, Hadas Shachnai and Neal E. Youn
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