Decentralized Contingency MPC based on Safe Sets for Nonlinear Multi-agent Collision Avoidance

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Studt, Max, Schildbach, Georg
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Studt, Max
Schildbach, Georg
author_facet Studt, Max
Schildbach, Georg
contents Decentralized collision avoidance remains challenging, particularly when agents do not communicate any information related to planned trajectories. Most existing approaches either rely on conservative coordination mechanisms or provide limited guarantees on recursive feasibility and convergence. This paper develops a decentralized contingency MPC framework for multi-agent systems with nonlinear dynamics that achieves collision-free motion under a state-only information pattern. Each agent follows the same consensual rule set, enabling safe decentralized planning without communication. Each agent solves a local optimization problem that couples a nominal trajectory with a contingency certificate ensuring a feasible backup maneuver under receding-horizon operation. A novel geometric and decentralized safe-set update mechanism prevents feasibility loss between consecutive time steps. The resulting scheme guarantees recursive feasibility, including collision avoidance, and establishes a Lyapunov-type convergence result to an admissible safe equilibrium. Simulation results demonstrate performance in both sparse and dense multi-agent environments, including cluttered bottleneck scenarios and under plug-and-play operation.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_10738
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Decentralized Contingency MPC based on Safe Sets for Nonlinear Multi-agent Collision Avoidance
Studt, Max
Schildbach, Georg
Optimization and Control
Multiagent Systems
Robotics
Systems and Control
Decentralized collision avoidance remains challenging, particularly when agents do not communicate any information related to planned trajectories. Most existing approaches either rely on conservative coordination mechanisms or provide limited guarantees on recursive feasibility and convergence. This paper develops a decentralized contingency MPC framework for multi-agent systems with nonlinear dynamics that achieves collision-free motion under a state-only information pattern. Each agent follows the same consensual rule set, enabling safe decentralized planning without communication. Each agent solves a local optimization problem that couples a nominal trajectory with a contingency certificate ensuring a feasible backup maneuver under receding-horizon operation. A novel geometric and decentralized safe-set update mechanism prevents feasibility loss between consecutive time steps. The resulting scheme guarantees recursive feasibility, including collision avoidance, and establishes a Lyapunov-type convergence result to an admissible safe equilibrium. Simulation results demonstrate performance in both sparse and dense multi-agent environments, including cluttered bottleneck scenarios and under plug-and-play operation.
title Decentralized Contingency MPC based on Safe Sets for Nonlinear Multi-agent Collision Avoidance
topic Optimization and Control
Multiagent Systems
Robotics
Systems and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.10738