A survey of multi-robot regular and adversarial patrolling

TLDR

Multi‑robot systems can be deployed to patrol environments for security purposes. This work reviews existing research in multi‑robot patrolling from regular and adversarial perspectives. The survey categorizes patrolling into regular, where robots visit key locations frequently using deterministic strategies, and adversarial, where unpredictable movement maximizes detection probability, and systematically examines problem statements, objectives, evaluation criteria, and representative strategies. The survey identifies existing problems and open questions in multi‑robot patrolling.

Abstract

Multi-robot systems can be applied to patrol a concerned environment for security purposes. According to different goals, this work reviews the existing researches in a multi-robot patrolling field from the perspectives of regular and adversarial patrolling. Regular patrolling requires robots to visit important locations as frequently as possible and a series of deterministic strategies are proposed, while adversarial one focuses on unpredictable robots' moving patterns to maximize adversary detection probability. Under each category, a systematic survey is done including problem statements and modeling, patrolling objectives and evaluation criteria, and representative patrolling strategies and approaches. Existing problems and open questions are presented accordingly.