Pursuit-Evasion: A Toolkit to Make Applications More Accessible [Tutorial]

An evasion game takes place between two players. The pursuer is charged with capturing the evader while the evader tries to avoid getting caught. Many robotics applications such as search, tracking, and surveillance can be modeled as pursuit–evasion games. Equally important, these games can be modeled as fun mathematics problems to inspire newcomers to the field of robotics. We have witnessed this firsthand during summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates programs at the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications, located at the University of Minnesota. The subject is accessible, with many open problems that require creativity, insight, and strong algorithmic thinking. Our summer students digested the basics of the field and developed results that evolved into research publications [1], [2].