Multi-Agent Monte Carlo Tree Search for Makespan-Efficient Object Rearrangement in Cluttered Spaces

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Ren, Hanwen, Kim, Junyong, Tharmasanthiran, Aathman, Qureshi, Ahmed H.
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2026
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author Ren, Hanwen
Kim, Junyong
Tharmasanthiran, Aathman
Qureshi, Ahmed H.
author_facet Ren, Hanwen
Kim, Junyong
Tharmasanthiran, Aathman
Qureshi, Ahmed H.
contents Object rearrangement planning in complex, cluttered environments is a common challenge in warehouses, households, and rescue sites. Prior studies largely address monotone instances, whereas real-world tasks are often non-monotone-objects block one another and must be temporarily relocated to intermediate positions before reaching their final goals. In such settings, effective multi-agent collaboration can substantially reduce the time required to complete tasks. This paper introduces Centralized, Asynchronous, Multi-agent Monte Carlo Tree Search (CAM-MCTS), a novel framework for general-purpose makespan-efficient object rearrangement planning in challenging environments. CAM-MCTS combines centralized task assignment-where agents remain aware of each other's intended actions to facilitate globally optimized planning-with an asynchronous task execution strategy that enables agents to take on new tasks at appropriate time steps, rather than waiting for others, guided by a one-step look-ahead cost estimate. This design minimizes idle time, prevents unnecessary synchronization delays, and enhances overall system efficiency. We evaluate CAM-MCTS across a diverse set of monotone and non-monotone tasks in cluttered environments, demonstrating consistent reductions in makespan compared to strong baselines. Finally, we validate our approach on a real-world multi-agent system under different configurations, further confirming its effectiveness and robustness.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_02411
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Multi-Agent Monte Carlo Tree Search for Makespan-Efficient Object Rearrangement in Cluttered Spaces
Ren, Hanwen
Kim, Junyong
Tharmasanthiran, Aathman
Qureshi, Ahmed H.
Robotics
Object rearrangement planning in complex, cluttered environments is a common challenge in warehouses, households, and rescue sites. Prior studies largely address monotone instances, whereas real-world tasks are often non-monotone-objects block one another and must be temporarily relocated to intermediate positions before reaching their final goals. In such settings, effective multi-agent collaboration can substantially reduce the time required to complete tasks. This paper introduces Centralized, Asynchronous, Multi-agent Monte Carlo Tree Search (CAM-MCTS), a novel framework for general-purpose makespan-efficient object rearrangement planning in challenging environments. CAM-MCTS combines centralized task assignment-where agents remain aware of each other's intended actions to facilitate globally optimized planning-with an asynchronous task execution strategy that enables agents to take on new tasks at appropriate time steps, rather than waiting for others, guided by a one-step look-ahead cost estimate. This design minimizes idle time, prevents unnecessary synchronization delays, and enhances overall system efficiency. We evaluate CAM-MCTS across a diverse set of monotone and non-monotone tasks in cluttered environments, demonstrating consistent reductions in makespan compared to strong baselines. Finally, we validate our approach on a real-world multi-agent system under different configurations, further confirming its effectiveness and robustness.
title Multi-Agent Monte Carlo Tree Search for Makespan-Efficient Object Rearrangement in Cluttered Spaces
topic Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.02411