Multi-agent Path Finding in Continuous Environment

TL;DR

This paper introduces CE-CBS, a novel algorithm for multi-agent path finding in continuous environments that combines conflict-based search with RRT* to efficiently resolve agent collisions.

Contribution

It presents the first continuous environment conflict-based search (CE-CBS) algorithm, integrating CBS and RRT* for improved multi-agent path planning in smooth, continuous spaces.

Findings

CE-CBS is competitive with existing continuous MAPF algorithms.

Experimental results demonstrate effectiveness across diverse instances.

The approach efficiently resolves collisions in continuous environments.

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.