Online Search with Maximum Clearance

TL;DR

This paper develops optimal and heuristic search strategies for mobile agents locating hidden targets in various environments, balancing efficiency, search budget, and coverage in online search scenarios.

Contribution

It introduces a multi-criteria search problem with budget constraints and provides analytically optimal strategies for line and star environments, plus heuristics for general networks.

Findings

Optimal strategies for line and star environments.

Efficient heuristics for general networks.

Strategies balance competitiveness, budget, and coverage.

Abstract

We study the setting in which a mobile agent must locate a hidden target in a bounded or unbounded environment, with no information about the hider's position. In particular, we consider online search, in which the performance of the search strategy is evaluated by its worst case competitive ratio. We introduce a multi-criteria search problem in which the searcher has a budget on its allotted search time, and the objective is to design strategies that are competitively efficient, respect the budget, and maximize the total searched ground. We give analytically optimal strategies for the line and the star environments, and efficient heuristics for general networks.