{"ID":2839331,"CreatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","UpdatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","DeletedAt":null,"paper_url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.15036","arxiv_id":"2511.15036","title":"Area-Optimal Control Strategies for Heterogeneous Multi-Agent Pursuit","abstract":"This paper presents a novel strategy for a multi-agent pursuit-evasion game involving multiple faster pursuers with heterogenous speeds and a single slower evader. We define a geometric region, the evader's safe-reachable set, as the intersection of Apollonius circles derived from each pursuer-evader pair. The capture strategy is formulated as a zero-sum game where the pursuers cooperatively minimize the area of this set, while the evader seeks to maximize it, effectively playing a game of spatial containment. By deriving the analytical gradients of the safe-reachable set's area with respect to agent positions, we obtain closed-form, instantaneous optimal control laws for the heading of each agent. These strategies are computationally efficient, allowing for real-time implementation. Simulations demonstrate that the gradient-based controls effectively steer the pursuers to systematically shrink the evader's safe region, leading to guaranteed capture. This area-minimization approach provides a clear geometric objective for cooperative capture.","short_abstract":"This paper presents a novel strategy for a multi-agent pursuit-evasion game involving multiple faster pursuers with heterogenous speeds and a single slower evader. We define a geometric region, the evader's safe-reachable set, as the intersection of Apollonius circles derived from each pursuer-evader pair. The capture...","url_abs":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.15036","url_pdf":"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2511.15036v2","authors":"[\"Kamal Mammadov\",\"Damith C. Ranasinghe\"]","published":"2025-11-19T02:09:19Z","proceeding":"cs.MA","tasks":"[\"cs.MA\"]","methods":"[]","has_code":false}