Anytime Multi-Agent Path Finding via Large Neighborhood Search

August 2021

Anytime Multi-Agent Path Finding via Large Neighborhood Search

Authors:

Jiaoyang Li, Zhe Chen, Daniel Harabor, Peter J. Stuckey, and Sven Koenig

Abstract:

Multi-Agent Path Finding (MAPF) is the challenging problem of computing collision-free paths for multiple agents. Algorithms for solving MAPF can be categorized on a spectrum. At one end are (bounded-sub)optimal algorithms that can find high-quality solutions for small problems. At the other end are unbounded-suboptimal algorithms that can solve large problems but usually find low-quality solutions. In this paper, we consider a third approach that combines the best of both worlds: anytime algorithms that quickly find an initial solution using efficient MAPF algorithms from the literature, even for large problems, and that subsequently improve the solution quality to near-optimal as time progresses by replanning subgroups of agents using Large Neighborhood Search. We compare our algorithm MAPF-LNS against a range of existing work and report significant gains in scalability, runtime to the initial solution, and speed of improving the solution.
@conference{Li-2021-131394,
author = {Jiaoyang Li And Zhe Chen And Daniel Harabor And Peter J. Stuckey And Sven Koenig},
title = {Anytime Multi-Agent Path Finding via Large Neighborhood Search},
booktitle = {Proceedings of 30th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI '21)},
year = {2021},
month = {August},
pages = {4127 - 4135},
}
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