CS Events

PhD Defense From Theory to Practice: Advancing Multi-Robot Path Planning Algorithms and Applications
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Speaker: Teng Guo

Location : Room 402, 4th floor, 1 Spring Street, Downtown New Brunswick

Committee: 

Associate Professor Jingjin Yu 

Professor Kostas Bekris

Associate Professor  Abdeslam Boularias

Associate Professor Bo Yuan (External Member)

Event Type: PhD Defense

Abstract: The labeled Multi-Robot Path Planning (MRPP) problem—routing multiple robots from start to goal locations without collisions—presents both fundamental algorithmic challenges and practical relevance across domains such as warehouse automation, transportation, and robotics coordination. This dissertation develops scalable MRPP solutions with theoretical guarantees and real-world applicability. On the theoretical side, it introduces algorithms with provable completeness and optimality guarantees for densely populated grid environments, as well as efficient scheduling frameworks for combined task and motion planning. On the application side, it presents effective heuristics and planning strategies for diverse settings including urban driving scenarios, robot convoy coordination, and multi-robot object delivery with constraints such as nonholonomic dynamics and tight spatial coupling. These contributions significantly advance the scalability, generality, and practicality of MRPP algorithms.The thesis defense will primarily focus on two recent lines of work. The first is the Rubik Table (RT) method, a high-throughput, near-optimal approach for MRPP on dense grid graphs, capable of coordinating tens of thousands of robots within minutes. The second is a puzzle-inspired multi-robot parking system that enables high-density vehicle storage and retrieval through combinatorial optimization, further extended to accommodate nonholonomic robot models such as Reeds-Shepp cars using motion primitives and trajectory smoothing. Both works are validated through simulations and physical experiments, demonstrating their practical impact and generalizability.

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Contact  Associate Professor Jingjin Yu

Zoom Link: https://rutgers.zoom.us/j/94749032679?pwd=olHXrr3MInEM7uwjyOpW3AVl75ui60.1