Decentralized multi-agent path finding framework and strategies based on automated negotiation

Journal Article (2024)
Author(s)

M. Onur Keskin (Özyeğin University)

Furkan Cantürk (Özyeğin University)

Cihan Eran (Özyeğin University)

Reyhan Aydoğan (Özyeğin University, TU Delft - Interactive Intelligence)

Research Group
Interactive Intelligence
DOI related publication
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10458-024-09639-8
More Info
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Publication Year
2024
Language
English
Research Group
Interactive Intelligence
Issue number
1
Volume number
38
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Abstract

This paper introduces a negotiation framework to solve the Multi-Agent Path Finding (MAPF) Problem for self-interested agents in a decentralized fashion. The framework aims to achieve a good trade-off between the privacy of the agents and the effectiveness of solutions. Accordingly, a token-based bilateral negotiation protocol and two negotiation strategies are presented. The experimental results over four different settings of the MAPF problem show that the proposed approach could find conflict-free path solutions albeit suboptimally, especially when the search space is large and high-density. In contrast, Explicit Estimation Conflict-Based Search (EECBS) struggles to find optimal solutions. Besides, deploying a sophisticated negotiation strategy that utilizes information about local density for generating alternative paths can yield remarkably better solution performance in this negotiation framework.