Pursuit-Evasion Games of High Speed Evader

In this paper, we address pursuit-evasion games of high speed evader involving multiple pursuers and a single evader with holonomic constraints in an open domain. The existing work on this problem discussed the required formation and capture strategy for a group of pursuers. However, the formulation has mathematical errors and has raised concerns over the validity of the developed capture strategy. This paper uses the idea of Apollonius circle to develop an escape strategy for the high speed evader, resolving the shortfalls in the existing work. The strategy is built on a concept of perfectly encircled formation and the conditions required to construct the same are presented. The escape strategy contains two steps. Firstly, the evader employs a strategy that forces a gap in the formation against all the admissible strategies of a group of pursuers. In the second step, it uses this gap to escape. The strategy considers both direct and indirect gaps in the formations. The indirect gap is encountered when a group of three or four pursuers is employed to capture. The efficacy of the escape strategy is established using simulation results.