General Markov Model for Solving Patrolling Games

Abstract

Safeguarding critical infrastructure has recently emerged as a global challenge. To address complex security concerns raised by broadening array of threats, effective mobile security forces are essential. A key aspect involves designing optimal patrolling strategies for mobile units. Two bodies of research dealt with this: stochastic patrolling and partially observable stochastic games. Alas, the first approach makes too-far-reaching simplifying assumption and the second one is more expressive but computationally challenging. The model proposed in this paper is inspired by partially observable stochastic games so that it is general enough to enable comprehensive modeling of attacker-defender interactions but a the same time remains computationally friendly. With our proposed robust SHIELD algorithm, we are able to find a defense strategy where the probability of apprehending the attacker can be nearly doubled compared to the state of the art.