A Two-Cell Model of Search for a Moving Target

This paper formulates a two-cell model of search for a moving target as a continuous-time Markov process with known constant transition rates and detection rates, and finds the distribution of searching effort that maximizes the probability of detection in time T, and the distribution that minimizes the expected time to detection. Although the optimization problems are difficult to solve, the solutions are simple. It appears to be possible, but difficult, to generalize this model to n cells.