[2603.23405] Planning over MAPF Agent Dependencies via Multi-Dependency PIBT

Computer Science > Multiagent Systems arXiv:2603.23405 (cs) [Submitted on 24 Mar 2026] Title:Planning over MAPF Agent Dependencies via Multi-Dependency PIBT Authors:Zixiang Jiang, Yulun Zhang, Rishi Veerapaneni, Jiaoyang Li View a PDF of the paper titled Planning over MAPF Agent Dependencies via Multi-Dependency PIBT, by Zixiang Jiang and 3 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Modern Multi-Agent Path Finding (MAPF) algorithms must plan for hundreds to thousands of agents in congested environments within a second, requiring highly efficient algorithms. Priority Inheritance with Backtracking (PIBT) is a popular algorithm capable of effectively planning in such situations. However, PIBT is constrained by its rule-based planning procedure and lacks generality because it restricts its search to paths that conflict with at most one other agent. This limitation also applies to Enhanced PIBT (EPIBT), a recent extension of PIBT. In this paper, we describe a new perspective on solving MAPF by planning over agent dependencies. Taking inspiration from PIBT's priority inheritance logic, we define the concept of agent dependencies and propose Multi-Dependency PIBT (MD-PIBT) that searches over agent dependencies. MD-PIBT is a general framework where specific parameterizations can reproduce PIBT and EPIBT. At the same time, alternative configurations yield novel planning strategies that are not expressible by PIBT or EPIBT. Our experiments demonstrate that MD-PIBT effective...