arXiv AI

Pivot-and-Station Multi-Agent Path Finding: Solvability, Complexity, and Algorithms

The paper introduces Pivot-and-Station Multi-Agent Path Finding (PS‑MAPF), a variant of MAPF where a subset of agents must visit interchangeable pivots before all agents occupy anonymous stations. It provides a full solvability characterization: every instance on a 2‑edge‑connected graph is solvable, and for arbitrary connected graphs a structural effective‑distance measure relative to unoccupied vertices gives a necessary and sufficient condition. The authors prove that minimizing station‑makespan or station‑flowtime is NP‑hard even with a single pivot, and present three algorithms—a complete baseline, a SAT‑based optimal solver, and Pivot‑Prioritized Planning (PPP), which solves 74‑89% of benchmark instances with significantly lower makespan and flowtime than the baseline.

arXiv AI
Oct 9

Simultaneous Computation with Multiple Prioritizations in Multi-Agent Motion Planning

The paper proposes a method that allows agents in multi‑agent motion planning to compute with multiple prioritizations simultaneously, avoiding reliance on domain‑specific heuristics or costly iterative searches. This general approach is applied to receding‑horizon motion planning with system dynamics, and numerical experiments show near‑optimal prioritization and performance gains over state‑of‑the‑art methods with only a slight increase in computation time. Real‑time feasibility is demonstrated on a road network with ten vehicles in a Cyber‑Physical Mobility Lab.

By Patrick Scheffe, Julius Kahle, Bassam Alrifaee
arXiv AI
Oct 5

Optimal Planning in a Dynamic World

The paper introduces the concept of any-start-time planning, addressing scenarios where the set of feasible states or actions changes over time, such as path planning among moving obstacles or train boarding. It presents a new data structure, the compound arrival time function (cATF), which compactly encodes the optimal plan as a function of start time and can be assembled via heuristic graph search. Experiments on the SIPP problem demonstrate that any-start-time algorithms using cATFs outperform traditional replanning approaches on difficult instances.

By Devin Wild Thomas (University of New Hampshire, USA), Solomon Eyal Shimony (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel), Wheeler Ruml (University of New Hampshire, USA), Erez Karpas (Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Israel), Shahaf S. Shperberg (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel), Andrew Coles (King's College London, UK)
arXiv AI
Oct 1

Belief-Aware Multi-Agent Path Finding under Map Uncertainty

The paper introduces Belief-Aware Multi-Agent Path Finding under Map Uncertainty, addressing the challenge that real-world environments can change unexpectedly. It proposes MAGIC, a framework that uses a Gaussian Markov Random Field and Gaussian Belief Propagation to update a shared belief about traversability online, allowing agents to infer the state of nearby unobserved locations. Experiments on standard MAPF benchmarks show that MAGIC reduces the executed sum of costs on 96.3% of instances, outperforming existing approaches across various planner families and large agent teams.

By Viraj Parimi, Shao-Hung Chan, Han Zhang, Jingkai Chen, Brian Williams
arXiv Machine Learning
Oct 8

Shared-Roadmap Generation and Evaluator for Multi-Agent Path Planning Using Heterogeneous Graph Neural Network

The paper introduces a scalable heterogeneous Graph Neural Network framework that automatically generates and evaluates shared roadmaps for multi‑agent path planning in continuous environments. By representing waypoints, agent locations, and task locations as distinct nodes, the GNN learns from expert solver trajectories to identify critical points and prune redundant connections, producing a compact, coordination‑aware roadmap. Experiments show the approach can reduce planning effort, achieving at least a 40% reduction in runtime and graph size for dense roadmaps.

By Brandon Ho, Nikola Rogers, Seung-Kyum Choi
arXiv AI
Oct 21

Policy Search in Code Space for Multi-Agent Pathfinding

arXiv:2610.25946v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Developing coordination policies for complex multi-agent systems relies on either labor-intensive algorithm design or opaque task-specific re...

By Matthias Eder, Pantelis Emmanouil, Vivek Farias, Fabian Fischer, Adam Jozefiak, Tianyi Peng, Thomas Ulz, Raphael Watschinger, Fangyu Wu, Andrew Zheng
arXiv AI
Aug 24

Unified Branch-and-Bound Search for the Steiner Traveling Salesman Problem on Graphs of Convex Sets

The paper introduces a unified branch‑and‑bound framework for the Steiner Traveling Salesman Problem on Graphs of Convex Sets (GCS), where the goal is to find a minimum‑cost closed walk through required convex sets while allowing optional vertices and revisits. The method uses additive lower‑bound graph costs for committed prefixes and a cut‑separated connected‑flow relaxation for the remaining cost, guaranteeing finite termination under a uniform positive‑cost assumption. Experiments on benchmark instances show that both best‑first and depth‑first traversal strategies find feasible solutions within 30 seconds, achieving mean certified optimality gaps of 28.1% and 29.7% respectively, outperforming two recent baselines.

By Jingtao Tang, Hang Ma