Learn all about Multi-Agent Path Finding (MAPF)
J. Li, Z. Chen, Y. Zheng, S.-H. Chan, D. Harabor, P. Stuckey, H. Ma and S. Koenig. Scalable Rail Planning and Replanning: Winning the 2020 Flatland Challenge. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling (ICAPS), pages 477-485, 2021.
Abstract: Multi-Agent Path Finding (MAPF) is the combinatorial problem of finding collision-free paths for multiple agents on a graph. This paper describes MAPF-based software for solving train planning and replanning problems on large-scale rail networks under uncertainty. The software recently won the 2020 Flatland Challenge, a NeurIPS competition trying to determine how to efficiently manage dense traffic on rail networks. The software incorporates many state-of-the-art MAPF or, in general, optimization technologies, such as prioritized planning, large neighborhood search, safe interval path planning, minimum communication policies, parallel computing, and simulated annealing. It can plan collision-free paths for thousands of trains within a few minutes and deliver deadlock-free actions in real-time during execution.
For more information on winning the Flatland competition, see our overview page.