FASTFUNNELS: Agile Multi Robot Navigation in Narrow Spaces via Adaptive Dynamic Funnels

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We focus on the problem of high-speed multi-robot navigation in cluttered spaces with tight spatial constraints. A key challenge is balancing safety with agility, as existing methods often trade one for the other (slowing down near a bottleneck to avoid collisions versus failing to swerve in time at high speeds), especially for car-like systems. Our approach belongs to the family of formation control methods, in which Ackermann-steering agents coordinate while navigating tight spaces. However, current formation control techniques rely on rigid, pre-defined shapes and transitions that depend on initial conditions, the environment, and vehicle dynamics, and are impractical to maintain at high speeds. For example, agents passing through a small gap must first form a square, transform into a line using analytical equations, and then return to a square. In contrast, our approach is inspired by a droplet of water that continuously adapts its shape to the space it flows through without slowing down. We propose a hierarchical algorithm in which, at the high level, a reinforcement learning policy produces a dynamic, blob-like elliptical patch that morphs its shape in real time, squeezing, stretching, and orienting itself around obstacles and through tight spaces. At the low level, the robots are controlled via distributed model predictive control (DMPC) to stay inside the patch, which acts as a soft forcing function, while avoiding collisions with each other. We evaluate our approach, FastFunnels, on simulated F1TENTH racing cars across 14 scenarios with N=1 to N=6 robots, averaged over 20 trials each. FastFunnels achieves an 89% completion rate at 7.73 m/s, while all baselines either fail to complete the track or succeed only at very low speeds (0.07-1.79 m/s, about 40% completion rate).

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