Multi-agent Path Finding in Continuous Environment

TL;DR

A new Continuous Environment Conflict-Based Search (CE-CBS) algorithm is proposed that combines conflict-based search (CBS) for the high-level search framework with RRT* for low-level path planning and is tested under various settings on various SC-MAPF instances.

Abstract

We address a variant of multi-agent path finding in continuous environment (CE-MAPF), where agents move along sets of smooth curves. Collisions between agents are resolved via avoidance in the space domain. A new Continuous Environment Conflict-Based Search (CE-CBS) algorithm is proposed in this work. CE-CBS combines conflict-based search (CBS) for the high-level search framework with RRT* for low-level path planning. The CE-CBS algorithm is tested under various settings on diverse CE-MAPF instances. Experimental results show that CE-CBS is competitive w.r.t. to other algorithms that consider continuous aspect in MAPF such as MAPF with continuous time.

Figures (11)

• Figure 1: A smooth path avoiding a narrow obstacle successfully. Resulting path from blue circle starting position to green circle goal position is highlighted green. In red is shown the sampled RRT* tree.
• Figure 2: Figure depicting results of experiment showing relationship between average path length per agent and $\eta_{max}$.
• Figure 3: Figure showing how the number of CE-CBS iterations changed based on different $\eta_{max}$.
• Figure 4: $\eta_{max}=1000$
• Figure 5: $\eta_{max}=6000$

Theorems & Definitions (3)

• Definition 3.1: Smooth Continuous MAPF - SC-MAPF
• Definition 4.1: B-spline basis function
• Definition 4.2: B-spline curve