Virtual Traffic Lights for Multi-Robot Navigation: Decentralized Planning with Centralized Conflict Resolution

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Gupta, Sagar, Nguyen, Thanh Vinh, Phan, Thieu Long, Attri, Vidul, Gupta, Archit, Fernando, Niroshinie, Lee, Kevin, Loke, Seng W., Kutadinata, Ronny, Champion, Benjamin, Cosgun, Akansel
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Gupta, Sagar
Nguyen, Thanh Vinh
Phan, Thieu Long
Attri, Vidul
Gupta, Archit
Fernando, Niroshinie
Lee, Kevin
Loke, Seng W.
Kutadinata, Ronny
Champion, Benjamin
Cosgun, Akansel
author_facet Gupta, Sagar
Nguyen, Thanh Vinh
Phan, Thieu Long
Attri, Vidul
Gupta, Archit
Fernando, Niroshinie
Lee, Kevin
Loke, Seng W.
Kutadinata, Ronny
Champion, Benjamin
Cosgun, Akansel
contents We present a hybrid multi-robot coordination framework that combines decentralized path planning with centralized conflict resolution. In our approach, each robot autonomously plans its path and shares this information with a centralized node. The centralized system detects potential conflicts and allows only one of the conflicting robots to proceed at a time, instructing others to stop outside the conflicting area to avoid deadlocks. Unlike traditional centralized planning methods, our system does not dictate robot paths but instead provides stop commands, functioning as a virtual traffic light. In simulation experiments with multiple robots, our approach increased the success rate of robots reaching their goals while reducing deadlocks. Furthermore, we successfully validated the system in real-world experiments with two quadruped robots and separately with wheeled Duckiebots.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_07811
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Virtual Traffic Lights for Multi-Robot Navigation: Decentralized Planning with Centralized Conflict Resolution
Gupta, Sagar
Nguyen, Thanh Vinh
Phan, Thieu Long
Attri, Vidul
Gupta, Archit
Fernando, Niroshinie
Lee, Kevin
Loke, Seng W.
Kutadinata, Ronny
Champion, Benjamin
Cosgun, Akansel
Robotics
We present a hybrid multi-robot coordination framework that combines decentralized path planning with centralized conflict resolution. In our approach, each robot autonomously plans its path and shares this information with a centralized node. The centralized system detects potential conflicts and allows only one of the conflicting robots to proceed at a time, instructing others to stop outside the conflicting area to avoid deadlocks. Unlike traditional centralized planning methods, our system does not dictate robot paths but instead provides stop commands, functioning as a virtual traffic light. In simulation experiments with multiple robots, our approach increased the success rate of robots reaching their goals while reducing deadlocks. Furthermore, we successfully validated the system in real-world experiments with two quadruped robots and separately with wheeled Duckiebots.
title Virtual Traffic Lights for Multi-Robot Navigation: Decentralized Planning with Centralized Conflict Resolution
topic Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.07811