Learning a Policy for Pursuit-Evasion Games Using Spiking Neural Networks and the STDP Algorithm

Pursuit-Evasion (PE) games are regarded as a major platform for game theory. In this kind of game, an agent called an evader tries to escape from another agent called a pursuer. Active Target Defense (ATD) is a derivative of PE games, attracting attention recently. In an ATD game, the evader, often called an invader, strives to capture a moving target. The pursuer, called a defender, tries to intercept the invader. This paper implements the Spike-Timing-Dependent Plasticity (STDP) algorithm to train two Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs) to find a suitable solution for the ATD problem in decentralized situations. One of the SNNs is used to control the invader, while the other controls the defender. The performance is compared with the analytical solution for the pedestrian model. The results showed that an SNN can learn the optimal capture point only using relative velocities and line of sight.