A boolean control network approach to pursuit evasion problems in polygonal environments

In this paper, the multi pursuer version of the pursuit evasion problem in polygonal environments is addressed. This problem is NP-hard, and therefore we seek good enough, but not optimal solutions. By modeling the problem as a Boolean Control Network, we can efficiently keep track of which regions are cleared, and which are not, while the input nodes of the network are used to represent the motion of the pursuers. The environment is partitioned into a set of convex regions, where each region correspond to a set of nodes in the network. The method is implemented in ANSI C, and efficiently solves complex environments containing multiple loops and requiring so-called recontamination. The provided examples demonstrate the effectiveness of the method in terms of computational time.