Path-planning with uncertainty: a simple model

There are already plenty of work on planning under uncertainty. Here we consider a simple model, where the uncertainty can be removed at a later time T with different variations:

  • A fixed deterministic T
  • A random T with a discrete distribution
  • A random T with a discrete, stage-different distribution
  • A random T with an exponential distribution

The stage-differently distributed T can be illustrated by this motion picture. Assuming there are 4 possible target locations but only one of them is the true one. Starting from the source, we send out 3 drones to check each location while move to a better waypoint in the meantime.
Joint work with Adam Dhillon and Alexander Vladimirsky.