A discrete particle swarm optimization coalition formation algorithm for multi-pursuer multi-evader game

Abstract

Multi-Pursuers Multi-Evader Game (MPMEG) is considered as a multi-agent complex problem in which the pursuers must perform the capture of the detected evaders according to the temporal constraints. In this paper, we propose a metaheuristic approach based on a Discrete Particle Swarm Optimization in order to allow a dynamic coalition formation of the pursuers during the pursuit game. A pursuit coalition can be considered as the role definition of each pursuer during the game. In this work, each possible coalition is represented by a feasible particle’s position, which changes the concerned coalition according to its velocity during the pursuit game. With the aim of showcasing the performance of the new approach, we propose a comparison study in relation to recent approaches processing the MPMEG in term of capturing time and payoff acquisition. Moreover, we have studied the pursuit capturing time according to the number of used particles as well as the dynamism of the pursuit coalitions formed during the game. The obtained results note that the proposed approach outperforms the compared approaches in relation to the capturing time by only using eight particles. Moreover, this approach improves the pursuers’ payoff acquisition, which represents the pursuers’ learning rate during the task execution.