Conflict-Based Search for Connected Multi-Agent Path Finding

TL;DR

This paper introduces a conflict-based search algorithm tailored for connected multi-agent path finding, emphasizing connectivity constraints crucial for applications like search and rescue, and compares its performance with existing methods.

Contribution

It extends conflict-based search to handle connectivity constraints in MAPF, providing new algorithms and experimental validation for this specialized problem.

Findings

The proposed algorithms effectively maintain connectivity during multi-agent path planning.

Experimental results show improved performance over traditional MAPF algorithms in connected scenarios.

Connectivity constraints significantly impact path planning complexity and solutions.

Abstract

We study a variant of the multi-agent path finding problem (MAPF) in which agents are required to remain connected to each other and to a designated base. This problem has applications in search and rescue missions where the entire execution must be monitored by a human operator. We re-visit the conflict-based search algorithm known for MAPF, and define a variant where conflicts arise from disconnections rather than collisions. We study optimizations, and give experimental results in which we compare our algorithms with the literature.