scholarly journals Explanation Generation for Multi-Modal Multi-Agent Path Finding with Optimal Resource Utilization using Answer Set Programming

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 974-989
Author(s):  
AYSU BOGATARKAN ◽  
ESRA ERDEM
Keyword(s):  
Answer Set Programming ◽  
Search Problem ◽  
Path Finding ◽  
Combinatorial Search ◽  
Transportation Modes ◽  
Optimal Resource ◽  
Multi Agent ◽  
Nonexistence Of Solutions ◽  
Velocity Constraints ◽  
Answer Set

AbstractThe multi-agent path finding (MAPF) problem is a combinatorial search problem that aims at finding paths for multiple agents (e.g., robots) in an environment (e.g., an autonomous warehouse) such that no two agents collide with each other, and subject to some constraints on the lengths of paths. We consider a general version of MAPF, called mMAPF, that involves multi-modal transportation modes (e.g., due to velocity constraints) and consumption of different types of resources (e.g., batteries). The real-world applications of mMAPF require flexibility (e.g., solving variations of mMAPF) as well as explainability. Our earlier studies on mMAPF have focused on the former challenge of flexibility. In this study, we focus on the latter challenge of explainability, and introduce a method for generating explanations for queries regarding the feasibility and optimality of solutions, the nonexistence of solutions, and the observations about solutions. Our method is based on answer set programming.

scholarly journals A Declarative Method for Dynamic Multi-Agent Path Finding

10.29007/cnzw ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aysu Bogatarkan ◽  
Volkan Patoglu ◽  
Esra Erdem
Keyword(s):  
Answer Set Programming ◽  
New Method ◽  
Search Problem ◽  
Path Finding ◽  
Combinatorial Search ◽  
Multiple Agents ◽  
New Agents ◽  
Two Agents ◽  
Multi Agent ◽  
Answer Set

The multi-agent path finding (MAPF) problem is a combinatorial search problem that aims at finding paths for multiple agents such that no two agents collide with each other. We study a dynamic variant of MAPF, called D-MAPF, which allows changes in the environment (e.g., some existing obstacles may be removed from the environment or moved to some other location, or new obstacles may be included in the environment), and/or changes in the team (e.g., some existing agents may leave and some new agents may join the team) at different times. We introduce a new method to solve D-MAPF, using answer set programming.

scholarly journals Generalized Target Assignment and Path Finding Using Answer Set Programming

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Van Nguyen ◽  
Philipp Obermeier ◽  
Tran Cao Son ◽  
Torsten Schaub ◽  
William Yeoh
Keyword(s):  
Scale Up ◽  
Answer Set Programming ◽  
Specific Information ◽  
Path Finding ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Target Assignment ◽  
Specific Order ◽  
Multi Agent ◽  
Unequal Number ◽  
Answer Set

In Multi-Agent Path Finding (MAPF), a team of agents needs to find collision-free paths from their starting locations to their respective targets. Combined Target Assignment and Path Finding (TAPF) extends MAPF by including the problem of assigning targets to agents as a precursor to the MAPF problem. A limitation of both models is their assumption that the number of agents and targets are equal, which is invalid in some applications such as autonomous warehouse systems. We address this limitation by generalizing TAPF to allow for (1)~unequal number of agents and tasks; (2)~tasks to have deadlines by which they must be completed; (3)~ordering of groups of tasks to be completed; and (4)~tasks that are composed of a sequence of checkpoints that must be visited in a specific order. Further, we model the problem using answer set programming (ASP) to show that customizing the desired variant of the problem is simple one only needs to choose the appropriate combination of ASP rules to enforce it. We also demonstrate experimentally that if problem specific information can be incorporated into the ASP encoding then ASP based method can be efficient and can scale up to solve practical applications.

scholarly journals Solution Enumeration by Optimality in Answer Set Programming

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
JUKKA PAJUNEN ◽  
TOMI JANHUNEN
Keyword(s):  
Objective Function ◽  
Optimization Problems ◽  
Logic Program ◽  
Answer Set Programming ◽  
Sampling Technique ◽  
Search Problem ◽  
Combinatorial Search ◽  
Optimal Solutions ◽  
Answer Sets ◽  
Answer Set

Abstract Given a combinatorial search problem, it may be highly useful to enumerate its (all) solutions besides just finding one solution, or showing that none exists. The same can be stated about optimal solutions if an objective function is provided. This work goes beyond the bare enumeration of optimal solutions and addresses the computational task of solution enumeration by optimality (SEO). This task is studied in the context of answer set programming (ASP) where (optimal) solutions of a problem are captured with the answer sets of a logic program encoding the problem. Existing answer set solvers already support the enumeration of all (optimal) answer sets. However, in this work, we generalize the enumeration of optimal answer sets beyond strictly optimal ones, giving rise to the idea of answer set enumeration in the order of optimality (ASEO). This approach is applicable up to the best k answer sets or in an unlimited setting, which amounts to a process of sorting answer sets based on the objective function. As the main contribution of this work, we present the first general algorithms for the aforementioned tasks of answer set enumeration. Moreover, we illustrate the potential use cases of ASEO. First, we study how efficiently access to the next-best solutions can be achieved in a number of optimization problems that have been formalized and solved in ASP. Second, we show that ASEO provides us with an effective sampling technique for Bayesian networks.

scholarly journals Multi-Agent Path Finding with Deadlines

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hang Ma ◽  
Glenn Wagner ◽  
Ariel Felner ◽  
Jiaoyang Li ◽  
T. K. Satish Kumar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Flow Problem ◽  
Search Algorithms ◽  
The Other ◽  
Path Finding ◽  
Combinatorial Search ◽  
Programming Formulation ◽  
Commodity Flow ◽  
Linear Programming Formulation ◽  
Multi Agent ◽  
Integer Linear Programming Formulation

We formalize Multi-Agent Path Finding with Deadlines (MAPF-DL). The objective is to maximize the number of agents that can reach their given goal vertices from their given start vertices within the deadline, without colliding with each other. We first show that MAPF-DL is NP-hard to solve optimally. We then present two classes of optimal algorithms, one based on a reduction of MAPF-DL to a flow problem and a subsequent compact integer linear programming formulation of the resulting reduced abstracted multi-commodity flow network and the other one based on novel combinatorial search algorithms. Our empirical results demonstrate that these MAPF-DL solvers scale well and each one dominates the other ones in different scenarios.

scholarly journals Exploiting Answer Set Programming with External Sources for Meta-Interpretive Learning

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 571-588 ◽  
Author(s):  
TOBIAS KAMINSKI ◽  
THOMAS EITER ◽  
KATSUMI INOUE
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Evaluation ◽  
Answer Set Programming ◽  
Background Knowledge ◽  
Search Space ◽  
Combinatorial Search ◽  
Logic Programs ◽  
Search Problems ◽  
External Sources ◽  
Performance Gains ◽  
Answer Set

AbstractMeta-Interpretive Learning (MIL) learns logic programs from examples by instantiating meta-rules, which is implemented by the Metagol system based on Prolog. Viewing MIL-problems as combinatorial search problems, they can alternatively be solved by employing Answer Set Programming (ASP), which may result in performance gains as a result of efficient conflict propagation. However, a straightforward ASP-encoding of MIL results in a huge search space due to a lack of procedural bias and the need for grounding. To address these challenging issues, we encode MIL in the HEX-formalism, which is an extension of ASP that allows us to outsource the background knowledge, and we restrict the search space to compensate for a procedural bias in ASP. This way, the import of constants from the background knowledge can for a given type of meta-rules be limited to relevant ones. Moreover, by abstracting from term manipulations in the encoding and by exploiting the HEX interface mechanism, the import of such constants can be entirely avoided in order to mitigate the grounding bottleneck. An experimental evaluation shows promising results.

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