Many existing multi-agent path finding (MAPF) solvers focus on completeness, speed, or optimization. However, completeness and rapidity are usually in conflict with each other, which makes these algorithms far from satisfactory in practical applications. Motivated by this realistic requirement, we propose an efficient decoupling method to accelerate the solution of large MAPF problems. First, we define the concept of ‘non-essential vertex’-vertices which are not needed to solve a MAPF problem, and a scheme to identify them. Then, a decoupling scheme based on ‘non-essential vertex’ is proposed, which will assign higher priorities to agents whose goal positions are non-essential vertices and lower priorities to agents whose start positions are non-essential vertices. That is, invoking our decoupling algorithm can decouple any given MAPF problem into three subproblems while maintaining the completeness of the solution. All three sub-MAPF problems can be solved sequentially by a complete solver (e.g., CBS or EECBS, etc.), and two of them can also be solved by a prioritized planning algorithm. We have conducted several experiments in different workspaces, and the statistical results show that the proposed decoupling method significantly improves the speed and success rate of existing MAPF solvers with almost no degradation in solution quality when solving problems with high agent density. In addition, the solving efficiency can be further improved if the prioritized planning algorithm is invoked to solve the first and third sub-MAPF problems.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.