Safe Control for Pursuit-Evasion with Density Functions

Abstract: This letter presents a density function based safe control synthesis framework for the pursuit-evasion problem. We extend safety analysis to dynamic unsafe sets by formulating a reach-avoid type pursuit-evasion differential game as a robust safe control problem. Using density functions and semi-algebraic set definitions, we derive sufficient conditions for weak eventuality and evasion, reformulating the problem into a convex sum-of-squares program solvable via standard semidefinite programming solvers. This approach avoids the computational complexity of solving the Hamilton-Jacobi-Isaacs partial differential equation, offering a scalable and efficient framework. Numerical simulations demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed method.