A Scalable Post-Processing Pipeline for Large-Scale Free-Space Multi-Agent Path Planning with PiBT

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Chakravarty, Arjo, Grey, Michael X., Muthugala, M. A. Viraj J., Elara, Mohan Rajesh
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Chakravarty, Arjo
Grey, Michael X.
Muthugala, M. A. Viraj J.
Elara, Mohan Rajesh
author_facet Chakravarty, Arjo
Grey, Michael X.
Muthugala, M. A. Viraj J.
Elara, Mohan Rajesh
contents Free-space multi-agent path planning remains challenging at large scales. Most existing methods either offer optimality guarantees but do not scale beyond a few dozen agents, or rely on grid-world assumptions that do not generalize well to continuous space. In this work, we propose a hybrid, rule-based planning framework that combines Priority Inheritance with Backtracking (PiBT) with a novel safety-aware path smoothing method. Our approach extends PiBT to 8-connected grids and selectively applies string-pulling based smoothing while preserving collision safety through local interaction awareness and a fallback collision resolution step based on Safe Interval Path Planning (SIPP). This design allows us to reduce overall path lengths while maintaining real-time performance. We demonstrate that our method can scale to over 500 agents in large free-space environments, outperforming existing any-angle and optimal methods in terms of runtime, while producing near-optimal trajectories in sparse domains. Our results suggest this framework is a promising building block for scalable, real-time multi-agent navigation in robotics systems operating beyond grid constraints.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_16748
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Scalable Post-Processing Pipeline for Large-Scale Free-Space Multi-Agent Path Planning with PiBT
Chakravarty, Arjo
Grey, Michael X.
Muthugala, M. A. Viraj J.
Elara, Mohan Rajesh
Robotics
Multiagent Systems
Free-space multi-agent path planning remains challenging at large scales. Most existing methods either offer optimality guarantees but do not scale beyond a few dozen agents, or rely on grid-world assumptions that do not generalize well to continuous space. In this work, we propose a hybrid, rule-based planning framework that combines Priority Inheritance with Backtracking (PiBT) with a novel safety-aware path smoothing method. Our approach extends PiBT to 8-connected grids and selectively applies string-pulling based smoothing while preserving collision safety through local interaction awareness and a fallback collision resolution step based on Safe Interval Path Planning (SIPP). This design allows us to reduce overall path lengths while maintaining real-time performance. We demonstrate that our method can scale to over 500 agents in large free-space environments, outperforming existing any-angle and optimal methods in terms of runtime, while producing near-optimal trajectories in sparse domains. Our results suggest this framework is a promising building block for scalable, real-time multi-agent navigation in robotics systems operating beyond grid constraints.
title A Scalable Post-Processing Pipeline for Large-Scale Free-Space Multi-Agent Path Planning with PiBT
topic Robotics
Multiagent Systems
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.16748