Local Visibility Roadmaps in Continous Multi-agent Path Finding

Abstract

We address the problem of smooth continuous multi-agent path finding (SC-MAPF), where agents move in a continuous environment along smooth curves in continuous time. The paths for individual agents are searched in local visibility roadmaps that consider obstacles and other agents. A new algorithm is proposed in this work, which combines the previous algorithm CE-CBS for high-level search with any-angle path finding for local single-agent planning, where agents are to avoid obstacles, both static and other agents. The new algorithm is tested and compared to CE-CBS, the algorithm building individual paths using RRT$^*$, and SMT-CCBS algorithm, an algorithm for MAPF$_R$. Experimental results show various advantages of the new algorithm over CE-CBS and SMT-CCBS in comparable settings.