NetSE: Small: Game Theoretic Coverage and Connectivity Services

University Of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Minneapolis MN

Investigators

Abstract

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). Robotic Sensor Networks (RSNs) are finding increasing use in critical applications such as surveillance, environmental monitoring, emergency response and search-and-rescue. With recent advances in embedded technologies, devices that can be used as RSN units are becoming available for everyday use. Intellectual Merit: This project focuses on pursuit-evasion games where one or more pursuers tries to "capture" an evader who, in turn, tries to avoid capture. Robust, provably correct solutions to many RSN tasks (such as coverage and connectivity) can be obtained by modeling them as pursuit-evasion games. Existing solutions to pursuit-evasion games usually assume that (i) all players can observe each other at all times and (ii) there is a centralized authority that coordinates all pursuers. Hence, such solutions are not applicable for modeling RSN applications where the network faces severe sensing and communication limitations. The primary goals of the proposed work are to understand the effect of these limitations on the outcome of the game, and to design strategies to overcome them. Broader Impacts: Sensing and actuation are expected to play significant roles in the evolution of information technology and the Internet. This research will contribute to this evolution in two major ways. First, it will deliver algorithms, tools and techniques to address communication, sensing and actuation issues simultaneously. Second, it will help scientists and engineers participating in this development acquire a broad range of skills in areas such as algorithms, perception, robotics and communications. This will be achieved through outreach programs and by incorporating this research in PI's courses.