Simultaneous Computation with Multiple Prioritizations in Multi-Agent Motion Planning

arXiv:2501.10781v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Multi-agent path finding (MAPF) in large networks is computationally challenging. An approach for MAPF is prioritized planning (PP), in which agents plan sequentially according to their priority. Albeit a computationally efficient approach for MAPF, the solution quality strongly depends on the prioritization. Most prioritizations rely either on heuristics, which do not generalize well, or iterate to find adequate priorities, which costs computational effort. In this work, we show how agents can compute with multiple prioritizations simultaneously. Our approach is general as it does not rely on domain-specific knowledge. The context of this work is multi-agent motion planning (MAMP) with a receding horizon subject to computation time constraints. MAMP considers the system dynamics in more detail compared to MAPF. In numerical experiments on MAMP, we demonstrate that our approach achieves near-optimal prioritization and outperforms state-of-the-art methods with only a minor increase in computation time. We show real-time capability in an experiment on a road network with ten vehicles in our Cyber-Physical Mobility Lab.

Abstract:Multi-agent path finding (MAPF) in large networks is computationally challenging. An approach for MAPF is prioritized planning (PP), in which agents plan sequentially according to their priority. Albeit a computationally efficient approach for MAPF, the solution quality strongly depends on the prioritization. Most prioritizations rely either on heuristics, which do not generalize well, or iterate to find adequate priorities, which costs computational effort. In this work, we show how agents can compute with multiple prioritizations simultaneously. Our approach is general as it does not rely on domain-specific knowledge. The context of this work is multi-agent motion planning (MAMP) with a receding horizon subject to computation time constraints. MAMP considers the system dynamics in more detail compared to MAPF. In numerical experiments on MAMP, we demonstrate that our approach achieves near-optimal prioritization and outperforms state-of-the-art methods with only a minor increase in computation time. We show real-time capability in an experiment on a road network with ten vehicles in our Cyber-Physical Mobility Lab.

Multiagent Systems (cs.MA); Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI); Robotics (cs.RO)

arXiv:2501.10781 [cs.MA]

(or arXiv:2501.10781v2 [cs.MA] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2501.10781 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite

Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, Vol. 86, 2026

https://doi.org/10.1613/jair.1.20870 Focus to learn more DOI(s) linking to related resources

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Simultaneous Computation with Multiple Prioritizations in Multi-Agent Motion Planning

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