{"type":"ScholarlyArticle","title":"Scalable Mechanism Design for Multi-Agent Path Finding","authors":[{"name":"Paul Friedrich","slug":"paul-friedrich","given":"Paul","family":"Friedrich","affiliation":"ETH AI Center; University of Zurich"},{"name":"Yulun Zhang","slug":"yulun-zhang","given":"Yulun","family":"Zhang","affiliation":"Carnegie Mellon University"},{"name":"Michael Curry","slug":"michael-curry","given":"Michael","family":"Curry","affiliation":"ETH AI Center; University of Zurich; Harvard University"},{"name":"Ludwig Dierks","slug":"ludwig-dierks","given":"Ludwig","family":"Dierks","affiliation":"University of Illinois at Chicago"},{"name":"Stephen McAleer","slug":"stephen-mcaleer","given":"Stephen","family":"McAleer","affiliation":"Carnegie Mellon University"},{"name":"Jiaoyang Li","slug":"jiaoyang-li","given":"Jiaoyang","family":"Li","affiliation":"Carnegie Mellon University"},{"name":"Tuomas Sandholm","slug":"tuomas-sandholm","given":"Tuomas","family":"Sandholm","affiliation":"Carnegie Mellon University; Strategy Robot, Inc. , Strategic Machine, Inc. , Optimized Markets, Inc."},{"name":"Sven Seuken","slug":"sven-seuken","given":"Sven","family":"Seuken","affiliation":"ETH AI Center; University of Zurich"}],"abstract":"Multi-Agent Path Finding (MAPF) involves determining paths for multiple agents to travel simultaneously and collision-free through a shared area toward given goal locations. This problem is computationally complex, especially when dealing with large numbers of agents, as is common in realistic applications like autonomous vehicle coordination. Finding an optimal solution is often computationally infeasible, making the use of approximate, suboptimal algorithms essential. Adding to the complexity, agents might act in a self-interested and strategic way, possibly misrepresenting their goals to the MAPF algorithm if it benefits them. Although the field of mechanism design offers tools to align incentives, using these tools without careful consideration can fail when only having access to approximately optimal outcomes. In this work, we introduce the problem of scalable mechanism design for MAPF and propose three strategyproof mechanisms, two of which even use approximate MAPF algorithms. We test our mechanisms on realistic MAPF domains with problem sizes ranging from dozens to hundreds of agents. We find that they improve welfare beyond a simple baseline.","doi":"10.24963/ijcai.2024/7","url":"https://ijcai.org/proceedings/2024/7","pdf":"https://ijcai.org/proceedings/2024/0007.pdf","markdown":"https://ijcai.org/proceedings/2024/7.md","bibtex":"https://ijcai.org/proceedings/2024/bibtex/7","volume":{"slug":"2024","title":"Proceedings of the Thirty-Third International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence","short_title":"IJCAI 2024","url":"https://ijcai.org/proceedings/2024/","year":2024,"location":"Jeju, Korea","dates":"3-9 August 2024","editors":"Kate Larson","isbn":"978-1-956792-04-1","publisher":"International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence Organization","doi_prefix":"10.24963/ijcai.2024"},"section":"Agent-based and Multi-agent Systems","track":"Main Track","number":7,"pages":{"first":58,"last":66},"keywords":["Planning and Scheduling: PS: Planning algorithms","Agent-based and Multi-agent Systems: MAS: Multi-agent planning","Game Theory and Economic Paradigms: GTEP: Mechanism design"],"videos":[],"references":[{"position":1,"raw":"[Amir et al., 2014] Ofra Amir, Guni Sharon, and Roni Stern. 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