Group Chase and Escape: Fusion of Pursuits-Escapes and Collective Motions

This book presents a unique fusion of two different research topics. One is related to the traditional mathematical problem of chases and escapes. The problem mainly deals with a situation where a chaser pursues an evader to analyze their trajectories and capture time. It dates back more than 300 years and has developed in various directions such as differential games. The other topic is the recently developing field of collective behavior, which investigates origins and properties of emergent behavior in groups of self-driving units. Applications include schools of fish, flocks of birds, and traffic jams. This book first reviews representative topics, both old and new, from these two areas. Then it presents the combined research topic of "group chase and escape", recently proposed by the authors. Although the combination is simple and straightforward, the book describes the emergence of rather intricate behavior, provoking the interest of readers for further developments and applications of related topics.