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Spatially Grouped Curriculum Learning for Multi-Agent Path Finding
University of Bayreuth, Germany.
Örebro University, School of Science and Technology. University of California, Irvine, USA.
2026 (English)In: Proceedings of the 40th Annual AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence: Vol. 40 No. 35: AAAI-26 Technical Tracks 35 / [ed] Sven Koenig; Chad Jenkins; Matthew E. Taylor, AAAI Press, 2026, p. 29642-29650Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Multi-agent path finding (MAPF) is the challenging problem of finding conflict-free paths with minimal costs for multiple agents. While traditional MAPF solvers are centralized using heuristic search, reinforcement learning (RL) is becoming increasingly popular due to its potential to learn decentralized and generalizing policies. RL-based MAPF must cope with spatial coordination, which is often addressed by combining independent training with ad hoc measures like replanning and communication. Such ad hoc measures often complicate the approach and require knowledge beyond the actual accessible information in RL, such as the full map occupation or broadcast communication channels, which limits generalizability, effectiveness, and sample efficiency. In this paper, we propose Partitioned Attention-based Reverse Curricula for Enhanced Learning (PARCEL), considering a bounding region for each agent. PARCEL trains all agents with overlapping regions jointly via self-attention to avoid potential conflicts. By employing a reverse curriculum, where the bounding regions grow as the policies improve, all agents will eventually merge into a single coordinated group. We evaluate PARCEL in two simple coordination tasks and four MAPF benchmark maps. Compared with state-of-the-art RL-based MAPF methods, PARCEL demonstrates better effectiveness and sample efficiency without ad hoc measures.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
AAAI Press, 2026. p. 29642-29650
Series
Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, ISSN 2159-5399, E-ISSN 2374-3468 ; 40:35
National Category
Computer Sciences Artificial Intelligence
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-130147DOI: 10.1609/aaai.v40i35.40208ISI: 001769422900040ISBN: 9781577359067 (electronic)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:oru-130147DiVA, id: diva2:2087693
Conference
40th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-26), 2026, Singapore, January 20-27, 2026
Available from: 2026-07-22 Created: 2026-07-22 Last updated: 2026-07-22Bibliographically approved

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CiteExportLink to record
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  • apa
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