Optimal search and ambush for a hider who can escape the search region

Abstract

Search games for a mobile or immobile hider traditionally have the hider permanently con…ned to a compact 'search region'making eventual capture inevitable. Hence the payo¤ can be taken as time until capture. However in many real life search problems it is possible for the hider to escape an area in which he was known to be located (e.g. Bin Laden from Tora Bora) or for a prey animal to escape a predator's hunting territory. We model and solve such continuous time problems with escape where we take the probability of capture to be the searcher's payo¤.We assume the searcher, while cruise searching, can cover the search region at unit rate of area, for a given time horizon T known to the hider. The hider can stay still or choose any time to ‡ee the region. To counter this, the searcher can also adopt an ambush mode which will capture a ‡eeing hider. The searcher wins the game if he either …nds the hider while cruise searching or ambushes him while he is attempting to ‡ee; the hider wins if he ‡ees successfully (while the searcher is cruising) or has not been found by time T: The optimal searcher strategy involves decreasing the ambush probability over time, to a limit of zero. This surprising behaviour is opposite to that found recently by Alpern et al (2011Alpern et al ( , 2013 in a predator-prey game with similar dynamics but without the possibility of the hider escaping. Our work also complements that of Zoroa et al (2014) on searching for multiple prey and Gal and Casas (2014) for a combined model of search and pursuit.

Search strategies for conservation detection dogs

“…Search theory has applications in such diverse fields as computer science (Geem et al 2009), mineral exploration (Kolesar 1982), search and rescue (Cooper 2005), animal behaviour (Alpern et al 2016) and invasive species management (Cacho et al 2007), among others. Excellent syntheses are provided by Frost (2000), Frost and Stone (2001) and Washburn (2002).…”