# Multi-Robot Coordination and Layout Design for Automated Warehousing

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.06436 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.06436/

## Key facts

- Cited by 17 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 23 of its 58 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 10 May 2023.

## Builds on (most cited first, 23 of 23)

- [Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.03385/) (2015)
- [Adam: A Method for Stochastic Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.6980/) (2014)
- [PyTorch: An Imperative Style, High-Performance Deep Learning Library](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.01703/) (2019)
- [Illuminating search spaces by mapping elites](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1504.04909/) (2015)
- [Robots that can adapt like animals](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1407.3501/) (2014)
- [Multi-Agent Pathfinding: Definitions, Variants, and Benchmarks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.08291/) (2019)
- [Illuminating Generalization in Deep Reinforcement Learning through Procedural Level Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1806.10729/) (2018)
- [Searching with Consistent Prioritization for Multi-Agent Path Finding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.06356/) (2018)
- [Lifelong Multi-Agent Path Finding in Large-Scale Warehouses](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.07371/) (2020)
- [Evolving Mario Levels in the Latent Space of a Deep Convolutional Generative Adversarial Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1805.00728/) (2018)
- [Lifelong Multi-Agent Path Finding for Online Pickup and Delivery Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1705.10868/) (2017)
- [PRIMAL2: Pathfinding via Reinforcement and Imitation Multi-Agent Learning -- Lifelong](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.08184/) (2020)
- [Increasing Generality in Machine Learning through Procedural Content Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.13071/) (2019)
- [Illuminating Mario Scenes in the Latent Space of a Generative Adversarial Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.05674/) (2020)
- [Deep Surrogate Assisted Generation of Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.04199/) (2022)
- [On the Importance of Environments in Human-Robot Coordination](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.10853/) (2021)
- [Mapping Hearthstone Deck Spaces through MAP-Elites with Sliding Boundaries](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.10656/) (2019)
- [Integrated Task Assignment and Path Planning for Capacitated Multi-Agent Pickup and Delivery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.14891/) (2021)
- [pyribs: A Bare-Bones Python Library for Quality Diversity Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.00191/) (2023)
- [Deep Surrogate Assisted MAP-Elites for Automated Hearthstone Deckbuilding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.03534/) (2021)
- [A Quality Diversity Approach to Automatically Generating Human-Robot Interaction Scenarios in Shared Autonomy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.04283/) (2020)
- [Video Game Level Repair via Mixed Integer Linear Programming](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.06627/) (2020)
- [Idle Time Optimization for Target Assignment and Path Finding in Sortation Centers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.00253/) (2019)

## Built on by (most cited first, 17 of 17)

- [Guidance Graph Optimization for Lifelong Multi-Agent Path Finding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.01446/) (2024)
- [Scaling Lifelong Multi-Agent Path Finding to More Realistic Settings: Research Challenges and Opportunities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.16162/) (2024)
- [Arbitrarily Scalable Environment Generators via Neural Cellular Automata](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.18622/) (2023)
- [Quality-Diversity Red-Teaming: Automated Generation of High-Quality and Diverse Attackers for Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.07121/) (2025)
- [Learning Team-Based Navigation: A Review of Deep Reinforcement Learning Techniques for Multi-Agent Pathfinding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.05893/) (2023)
- [Diversity from Human Feedback](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.06648/) (2023)
- [Destination-to-Chutes Task Mapping Optimization for Multi-Robot Coordination in Robotic Sorting Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.03472/) (2025)
- [KGLAMP: Knowledge Graph-guided Language model for Adaptive Multi-robot Planning and Replanning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.04129/) (2026)
- [Caching-Augmented Lifelong Multi-Agent Path Finding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.13421/) (2024)
- [Quality-Diversity with Limited Resources](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.03731/) (2024)
- [QD-MAPPER: A Quality Diversity Framework to Automatically Evaluate Multi-Agent Path Finding Algorithms in Diverse Maps](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.06888/) (2024)
- [Scaling Multi-Agent Environment Co-Design with Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.03100/) (2025)
- [Lifelong Scalable Multi-Agent Realistic Testbed and A Comprehensive Study on Design Choices in Lifelong AGV Fleet Management Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.15721/) (2026)
- [Enhancing Lifelong Multi-Agent Path Finding with Cache Mechanism](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.02803/) (2025)
- [MAPF-World: Action World Model for Multi-Agent Path Finding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.12087/) (2025)
- [SPARC: Spatial-Aware Path Planning via Attentive Agent Communication](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.02845/) (2026)
- [Stress-Relief Annealing: Polynomial-Time Simulation-Free Layout Optimization for Automated Warehouses](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.01024/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

With the rapid progress in Multi-Agent Path Finding (MAPF), researchers have studied how MAPF algorithms can be deployed to coordinate hundreds of robots in large automated warehouses. While most works try to improve the throughput of such warehouses by developing better MAPF algorithms, we focus on improving the throughput by optimizing the warehouse layout. We show that, even with state-of-the-art MAPF algorithms, commonly used human-designed layouts can lead to congestion for warehouses with large numbers of robots and thus have limited scalability. We extend existing automatic scenario generation methods to optimize warehouse layouts. Results show that our optimized warehouse layouts (1) reduce traffic congestion and thus improve throughput, (2) improve the scalability of the automated warehouses by doubling the number of robots in some cases, and (3) are capable of generating layouts with user-specified diversity measures. We include the source code at: https://github.com/lunjohnzhang/warehouse_env_gen_public