Multi-robot path planning
Indicators needed for verification
Looking at average travel times alone masks conflict waiting, deadlock, and operator intervention. The overall results of your operations must be measured together.
Multi-robot path planning is a problem of ensuring that each robot reaches its destination, while also being an operational problem of keeping the overall workflow stable. Even if the shortest route is calculated, on-site throughput may drop if robots are crowded into narrow intersections or replanning is delayed due to communication delays.
1. Mission completion time and distribution
Don't just look at the average, record the median, top latency and worst case. Even with the same average, if some missions are excessively late, field schedules and service levels will suffer.
2. System throughput
View the number of missions completed in a certain amount of time along with the number of robots. If you add robots and your throughput doesn't increase, suspect a cross section, charging, task assignment, or control bottleneck.
3. Collision avoidance waiting time
It distinguishes between times when the robot actually cannot move and gives way or stops. Safe stopping is necessary, but maps and priority rules can be improved if wait times are concentrated in certain areas.
4. Delay in replanning
Measures the time from obstacle detection until the new route is applied. It must include not only computation time but also communication, state synchronization, and control command reflection delays.
5. Deadlock and recovery
Record the frequency, duration, and recovery success rate of mutual immobilization. The number of times an operator intervenes due to automatic recovery failure is managed as a separate indicator.
6. Path quality and energy
View distance traveled, turns, acceleration/deceleration and battery consumption together. Actual efficiency may be low if the shortest path causes frequent turns or stops.
7. Safety/proximity events
The finding that there was no physical collision is not sufficient. It records the number of times safety distance thresholds are approached, emergency stops, speed limits occur and sensor reliability deterioration.
8. Operator intervention
Classifies human intervention such as map modification, mission cancellation, manual movement, and obstacle removal. It is more useful for product improvement to provide reasons for intervention and resolution time rather than a single number such as automation rate.
Verification method
Vary the number of robots, task density and obstacle scenarios in the simulation and measure the same metrics again in a constrained real-world environment. Simulation and field differences should be recorded to avoid overstating performance when scaled up.
RODIX connection
RODIX treats multi-robot operations not as a single path algorithm, but as a matter of task assignment, status, visualization and result recording. In PoC, the baseline and exception scenarios are first established and expansion is judged based on the result report.
Note
We referred to the introduction of RODIX's existing technology, the scope of MIR-Core·RLMS·PlanViz in the final work order, and the principles of multi-robot operation research.