Resolving Spatial-Time Conflicts In A Set Of Any-angle Or Angle-constrained Grid Paths

TL;DR

This paper presents a centralized algorithm for multi-agent pathfinding on 2D grids that efficiently resolves spatial and temporal conflicts through local re-planning and time offsets, ensuring high-quality solutions with low computational effort.

Contribution

It introduces a novel conflict resolution method combining local re-planning and time offsets for arbitrary-angle grid paths in multi-agent systems.

Findings

High success rate in conflict resolution

Low computational cost

Effective in arbitrary-angle grid path scenarios

Abstract

We study the multi-agent path finding problem (MAPF) for a group of agents which are allowed to move into arbitrary directions on a 2D square grid. We focus on centralized conflict resolution for independently computed plans. We propose an algorithm that eliminates conflicts by using local re-planning and introducing time offsets to the execution of paths by different agents. Experimental results show that the algorithm can find high quality conflict-free solutions at low computational cost.