A Game Model of Search and Pursuit

Abstract

Shmuel Gal and Jerome Casas have recently introduced a game theoretic model that combines search and pursuit by a predator for a prey animal. The prey (hider) can hide in a finite number of locations. The predator (searcher) can inspect any k of these locations. If the prey is not in any of these, the prey wins. If the prey is found at an inspected location, a pursuit begins which is successful for the predator with a known capture probability which depends on the location. We modify the problem so that each location takes a certain time to inspect and the predator has total inspection time k. We also consider a repeated game model where the capture probabilities only become known to the players over time, as each successful escape from a location lowers its perceived value capture probability.