International audience

We compare two approaches for modelling imperfect information in infinite games by using finite-state automata. The first, more standard approach views information as the result of an observation process driven by a sequential Mealy machine. In contrast, the second approach features indistinguishability relations described by synchronous two-tape automata. The indistinguishability-relation model turns out to be strictly more expressive than the one based on observations. We present a characterisation of the indistinguishability relations that admit a representation as a finite-state observation function. We show that the characterisation is decidable, and give a procedure to construct a corresponding Mealy machine whenever one exists.

International audience

We investigate infinite games on finite graphs where the information flow is perturbed by nondeterministic signalling delays. It is known that such perturbations make synthesis problems virtually unsolvable, in the general case. On the classical model where signals are attached to states, tractable cases are rare and difficult to identify. Here, we propose a model where signals are detached from control states, and we identify a subclass on which equilibrium outcomes can be preserved, even if signals are delivered with a delay that is finitely bounded. To offset the perturbation, our solution procedure combines responses from a collection of virtual plays following an equilibrium strategy in the instant- signalling game to synthesise, in a Frankenstein manner, an equivalent equilibrium strategy for the delayed-signalling game.

We present a general construction for eliminating imperfect information from games with several players who coordinate against nature, and to transform them into two-player games with perfect information while preserving winning strategy profiles. The construction yields an infinite game tree with epistemic models associated to nodes. To obtain a more succinct representation, we define an abstraction based on homomorphic equivalence, which we prove to be sound for games with observable winning conditions. The abstraction generates finite game graphs in several relevant cases, and leads to a new semi-decision procedure for multi-player games with imperfect information.

We present a polynomial-time reduction from parity games with imperfect information to safety games with imperfect information. Similar reductions for games with perfect information typically increase the game size exponentially. Our construction avoids such a blow-up by using imperfect information to realise succinct counters which cover a range exponentially larger than their size. In particular, the reduction shows that the problem of solving imperfect-information games with safety conditions is \EXPTIME-complete.