Scalable Mechanism Design for Multi-Agent Path Finding

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Friedrich, Paul, Zhang, Yulun, Curry, Michael, Dierks, Ludwig, McAleer, Stephen, Li, Jiaoyang, Sandholm, Tuomas, Seuken, Sven
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Friedrich, Paul
Zhang, Yulun
Curry, Michael
Dierks, Ludwig
McAleer, Stephen
Li, Jiaoyang
Sandholm, Tuomas
Seuken, Sven
author_facet Friedrich, Paul
Zhang, Yulun
Curry, Michael
Dierks, Ludwig
McAleer, Stephen
Li, Jiaoyang
Sandholm, Tuomas
Seuken, Sven
contents Multi-Agent Path Finding (MAPF) involves determining paths for multiple agents to travel simultaneously and collision-free through a shared area toward given goal locations. This problem is computationally complex, especially when dealing with large numbers of agents, as is common in realistic applications like autonomous vehicle coordination. Finding an optimal solution is often computationally infeasible, making the use of approximate, suboptimal algorithms essential. Adding to the complexity, agents might act in a self-interested and strategic way, possibly misrepresenting their goals to the MAPF algorithm if it benefits them. Although the field of mechanism design offers tools to align incentives, using these tools without careful consideration can fail when only having access to approximately optimal outcomes. In this work, we introduce the problem of scalable mechanism design for MAPF and propose three strategyproof mechanisms, two of which even use approximate MAPF algorithms. We test our mechanisms on realistic MAPF domains with problem sizes ranging from dozens to hundreds of agents. We find that they improve welfare beyond a simple baseline.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2401_17044
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Scalable Mechanism Design for Multi-Agent Path Finding
Friedrich, Paul
Zhang, Yulun
Curry, Michael
Dierks, Ludwig
McAleer, Stephen
Li, Jiaoyang
Sandholm, Tuomas
Seuken, Sven
Artificial Intelligence
Computer Science and Game Theory
Multiagent Systems
Multi-Agent Path Finding (MAPF) involves determining paths for multiple agents to travel simultaneously and collision-free through a shared area toward given goal locations. This problem is computationally complex, especially when dealing with large numbers of agents, as is common in realistic applications like autonomous vehicle coordination. Finding an optimal solution is often computationally infeasible, making the use of approximate, suboptimal algorithms essential. Adding to the complexity, agents might act in a self-interested and strategic way, possibly misrepresenting their goals to the MAPF algorithm if it benefits them. Although the field of mechanism design offers tools to align incentives, using these tools without careful consideration can fail when only having access to approximately optimal outcomes. In this work, we introduce the problem of scalable mechanism design for MAPF and propose three strategyproof mechanisms, two of which even use approximate MAPF algorithms. We test our mechanisms on realistic MAPF domains with problem sizes ranging from dozens to hundreds of agents. We find that they improve welfare beyond a simple baseline.
title Scalable Mechanism Design for Multi-Agent Path Finding
topic Artificial Intelligence
Computer Science and Game Theory
Multiagent Systems
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.17044