Robust Spatiotemporal Motion Planning for Multi-Agent Autonomous Racing via Topological Gap Identification and Accelerated MPC
This addresses the problem of high-speed, safe autonomous racing for multi-agent systems, representing a strong specific gain rather than a foundational advancement.
The paper tackles robust spatiotemporal motion planning for multi-agent autonomous racing by proposing a framework that uses topological gap identification and accelerated MPC, resulting in a 51.6% reduction in total maneuver time, over 81% overtaking success rate, and 20.3% lower computational latency.
High-speed multi-agent autonomous racing demands robust spatiotemporal planning and precise control under strict computational limits. Current methods often oversimplify interactions or abandon strict kinematic constraints. We resolve this by proposing a Topological Gap Identification and Accelerated MPC framework. By predicting opponent behaviors via SGPs, our method constructs dynamic occupancy corridors to robustly select optimal overtaking gaps. We ensure strict kinematic feasibility using a Linear Time-Varying MPC powered by a customized Pseudo-Transient Continuation (PTC) solver for high-frequency execution. Experimental results on the F1TENTH platform show that our method significantly outperforms state-of-the-art baselines: it reduces total maneuver time by 51.6% in sequential scenarios, consistently maintains an overtaking success rate exceeding 81% in dense bottlenecks, and lowers average computational latency by 20.3%, pushing the boundaries of safe and high-speed autonomous racing.