Goal Staying Makes Sum-of-Costs Anonymous Multi-Agent Path Finding NP-Hard

Abstract:Anonymous Multi-Agent Path Finding (AMAPF) admits polynomial-time network-flow algorithms for several objectives, including makespan, total distance, and sum-of-costs (SoC) when agents disappear upon reaching goals. We show that standard goal-staying AMAPF is fundamentally different. We first formulate SoC minimization by augmenting the standard time-expanded flow model with goal-settlement constraints and show that the resulting linear programming relaxation is non-integral. We then prove that minimizing SoC in goal-staying AMAPF is NP-hard via a reduction from 3-SAT. Together with the polynomial-time result for the disappearing variant, this establishes a sharp complexity boundary determined by whether completed agents remain at their goals.

Multiagent Systems (cs.MA); Computational Complexity (cs.CC); Robotics (cs.RO)

arXiv:2608.28658 [cs.MA]

(or arXiv:2608.28658v1 [cs.MA] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2608.28658 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

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