GPU-accelerated Conflict-based Search for Multi-agent Embodied Intelligence

• Published in: International journal of automation and computing Vol. 22; no. 4; pp. 641 - 654
• Main Authors: Tang, Mingkai, Xin, Ren, Fang, Chao, Li, Yuanhang, Liu, Hongji, Wu, Jin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.08.2025; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Artificial Intelligence; Computer Science; Coordination; Graphics processing units; Intelligence; Multiagent systems; Research Article; Robotics; Searching; Shortest-path problems; Solvers; Transportation systems; multi-agent system; planning; Conflict-based search (CBS); GPU parallel computing; multi-agent pathfinding (MAPF)
• ISSN: 2731-538X; 1476-8186; 2731-5398; 2731-5398; 1751-8520
• DOI: 10.1007/s11633-025-1568-y

Embodied intelligence applications, such as autonomous robotics and smart transportation systems, require efficient coordination of multiple agents in dynamic environments. A critical challenge in this domain is the multi-agent pathfinding (MAPF) problem, which ensures that agents can navigate conflict-free while optimizing their paths. Conflict-based search (CBS) is a well-established two-level solver for the MAPF problem. However, as the scale of the problem expands, the computation time becomes a significant challenge for the implementation of CBS. Previous optimizations have mainly focused on reducing the number of nodes explored by the high-level or low-level solver. This paper takes a different perspective by proposing a parallel version of CBS, namely GPU-accelerated conflict-based search (GACBS), which significantly exploits the parallel computing capabilities of GPU. GACBS employs a task coordination framework to enable collaboration between the high-level and low-level solvers with lightweight synchronous operations. Moreover, GACBS leverages a parallel low-level solver, called GATSA, to efficiently find the shortest path for a single agent under constraints. Experimental results show that the proposed GACBS significantly outperforms CPU-based CBS, with the maximum speedup ratio reaching over 46.