Optimal Interdiction of Unreactive Markovian Evaders

The interdiction problem arises in a variety of areas including military logistics, infectious disease control, and counter-terrorism. In the typical formulation of network interdiction, the task of the interdictor is to find a set of edges in a weighted network such that the removal of those edges would maximally increase the cost to an evader of traveling on a path through the network. Our work is motivated by cases in which the evader has incomplete information about the network or lacks planning time or computational power, e.g. when authorities set up roadblocks to catch bank robbers, the criminals do not know all the roadblock locations or the best path to use for their escape. We introduce a model of network interdiction in which the motion of one or more evaders is described by Markov processes and the evaders are assumed not to react to interdiction decisions. The interdiction objective is to find an edge set of size B, that maximizes the probability of capturing the evaders...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: CPAIOR
• Authors: Alexander Gutfraind, Aric A. Hagberg, Feng Pan
• Keywords: CPAIOR 2009, Discrete Geometry, Interdiction Problem, Interdiction Problem Arises, Network Interdiction