Introducing intelligent target in coordinated moving target search

Color Code Coordinated MTS (C³MTS) uses color code for coordination among multiple agents. In Real time search algorithms such as Moving Target Search MTS, the target is not intelligent (i.e. moves randomly) and its state is known to each agent. Since the target moves with out considering the agents positions, therefore, multiple agents will capture the target easily. In this paper, we propose an extension to Moving Target Search (MTS) known as "Intelligent and Moving Target" Search (I&MTS) for capturing intelligent moving target in partially unknown environment with varying difficulty level. Target will calculate its move using a heuristic function similar to agents' but its goal will be to move far from the agents. In I&MTS, multiple agents concurrently and autonomously try to pursue and capture a moving target without coordinating their actions with each other; therefore, multiple agents may travel the same path towards the target. To improve the efficiency of I&MTS we have proposed Coordinated "Intelligent and Moving Target" Search (CI&MTS) which uses colors for coordination among agents. Each agent observes the color code of the state and selects the next move on the basis of this color; multiple agents, therefore, will find and travel distinct paths towards the target. Introducing intelligent target in MTS degrades its efficiency because time to capture target increases. Our goal in this paper is to introduce intelligent target in MTS and apply a coordination scheme to make it efficient. Evaluation results demonstrate that the Coordinated I&MTS is 20 to 30 times more efficient than I&MTS in high difficulty level problems.