Solving Urban Network Security Games: Learning Platform, Benchmark, and Challenge for AI Research
This work provides a benchmark and challenge for AI researchers to advance algorithms for multiplayer games, with potential applications in urban security, though it is incremental as it builds on existing UNSG efforts.
The paper tackles the problem of solving multiplayer Urban Network Security Games (UNSGs) by proposing GraphChase, an open-source platform for developing efficient learning algorithms, which addresses performance and scalability issues in real-world crime prevention scenarios.
After the great achievement of solving two-player zero-sum games, more and more AI researchers focus on solving multiplayer games. To facilitate the development of designing efficient learning algorithms for solving multiplayer games, we propose a multiplayer game platform for solving Urban Network Security Games (\textbf{UNSG}) that model real-world scenarios. That is, preventing criminal activity is a highly significant responsibility assigned to police officers in cities, and police officers have to allocate their limited security resources to interdict the escaping criminal when a crime takes place in a city. This interaction between multiple police officers and the escaping criminal can be modeled as a UNSG. The variants of UNSGs can model different real-world settings, e.g., whether real-time information is available or not, and whether police officers can communicate or not. The main challenges of solving this game include the large size of the game and the co-existence of cooperation and competition. While previous efforts have been made to tackle UNSGs, they have been hampered by performance and scalability issues. Therefore, we propose an open-source UNSG platform (\textbf{GraphChase}) for designing efficient learning algorithms for solving UNSGs. Specifically, GraphChase offers a unified and flexible game environment for modeling various variants of UNSGs, supporting the development, testing, and benchmarking of algorithms. We believe that GraphChase not only facilitates the development of efficient algorithms for solving real-world problems but also paves the way for significant advancements in algorithmic development for solving general multiplayer games.