Priority-Aware Multi-Robot Coverage Path Planning

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Lee, Kanghoon, Kim, Hyeonjun, Li, Jiachen, Park, Jinkyoo
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
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author Lee, Kanghoon
Kim, Hyeonjun
Li, Jiachen
Park, Jinkyoo
author_facet Lee, Kanghoon
Kim, Hyeonjun
Li, Jiachen
Park, Jinkyoo
contents Multi-robot systems are widely used for coverage tasks that require efficient coordination across large environments. In Multi-Robot Coverage Path Planning (MCPP), the objective is typically to minimize the makespan by generating non-overlapping paths for full-area coverage. However, most existing methods assume uniform importance across regions, limiting their effectiveness in scenarios where some zones require faster attention. We introduce the Priority-Aware MCPP (PA-MCPP) problem, where a subset of the environment is designated as prioritized zones with associated weights. The goal is to minimize, in lexicographic order, the total priority-weighted latency of zone coverage and the overall makespan. To address this, we propose a scalable two-phase framework combining (1) greedy zone assignment with local search, spanning-tree-based path planning, and (2) Steiner-tree-guided residual coverage. Experiments across diverse scenarios demonstrate that our method significantly reduces priority-weighted latency compared to standard MCPP baselines, while maintaining competitive makespan. Sensitivity analyses further show that the method scales well with the number of robots and that zone coverage behavior can be effectively controlled by adjusting priority weights.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_00580
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Priority-Aware Multi-Robot Coverage Path Planning
Lee, Kanghoon
Kim, Hyeonjun
Li, Jiachen
Park, Jinkyoo
Robotics
Artificial Intelligence
Multiagent Systems
Multi-robot systems are widely used for coverage tasks that require efficient coordination across large environments. In Multi-Robot Coverage Path Planning (MCPP), the objective is typically to minimize the makespan by generating non-overlapping paths for full-area coverage. However, most existing methods assume uniform importance across regions, limiting their effectiveness in scenarios where some zones require faster attention. We introduce the Priority-Aware MCPP (PA-MCPP) problem, where a subset of the environment is designated as prioritized zones with associated weights. The goal is to minimize, in lexicographic order, the total priority-weighted latency of zone coverage and the overall makespan. To address this, we propose a scalable two-phase framework combining (1) greedy zone assignment with local search, spanning-tree-based path planning, and (2) Steiner-tree-guided residual coverage. Experiments across diverse scenarios demonstrate that our method significantly reduces priority-weighted latency compared to standard MCPP baselines, while maintaining competitive makespan. Sensitivity analyses further show that the method scales well with the number of robots and that zone coverage behavior can be effectively controlled by adjusting priority weights.
title Priority-Aware Multi-Robot Coverage Path Planning
topic Robotics
Artificial Intelligence
Multiagent Systems
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.00580