[agents] New Multi-Agent Path Finding Competition: The League of Robot Runners

[Sven Koenig]

*The League of Robot Runners Competition*
*
*
*1. Introduction*

A team of robots works together to complete errands. They fulfill 
orders, sort mail, and navigate all tricky grid environments.*YOUR JOB 
is to compute collision-free paths for the team. *Get the robots to 
where they’re going as efficiently as possible so they complete as many 
errands as possible. Use any tool you like: ML, RL, OR, Heuristic 
Search. Anything goes if you think hard enough. But don’t think too 
long; the clock is always ticking!

Simplified versions of such problems appear in the research literature 
under the name Multi-Agent Path Finding, Multi-Robot Path Planning, and 
many others. In this competition, we bridge the gap between academia and 
industry by identifying the core combinatorial challenges that make 
these problems difficult to solve in practice. Participation is open to 
individuals and teams of individuals from any discipline and background 
and from any geographic location. Participating in the competition means 
not only demonstrating your skills against the best in the field but 
also contributing to the establishment of new benchmarks and algorithmic 
baselines. You'll have the chance to make a tangible impact on the 
progression of the research field, with the possibility of your 
innovative solutions being adopted by the wider community. Moreover, 
your involvement will help increase attention to this critical problem 
and contribute to the growth of our community.

*2. Financial prizes are available for distinguished performance!*

  * *Best overall: 5,000 USD*
  * *Fast Mover:  2,500 USD*
  * *Line Honor:  2,500 USD*

Other notable performances (2nd, 3rd place in each category) will be 
recognized with a certificate. Register and submit your implementation 
before the submission deadline to be eligible! To lower participation 
costs, we also have a limited number of *training awards 
<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1_2piTMu4qzzTq7aPcsqQjcV12Edxb1bAWJ-Z8RXGHQA/viewform?edit_requested=true__;!!LIr3w8kk_Xxm!vpNRJvplFb8_4ZBCb0G5CxY2uj8SkWdOl2VUqXRIXa5Y0PpmFBYiq_pAtIA_N3cis6hij4KzdC1H-kRm$>*. 
Distributed according to merit, these awards come in the form of AWS 
credits (up to $1000 USD), which can be used to help with the offline 
development of computational models.

*3. Important dates*

  * *Warm-up round: July 13 - August 18*
  * *Main round: August 19 - November 30*
  * *Results Announcement: December 20
    *

For more information, please visit our website: 
https://www.leagueofrobotrunners.org/ 
<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.leagueofrobotrunners.org/__;!!LIr3w8kk_Xxm!vpNRJvplFb8_4ZBCb0G5CxY2uj8SkWdOl2VUqXRIXa5Y0PpmFBYiq_pAtIA_N3cis6hij4KzdBDLn1Q-$> 
or join our discord channel: https://discord.gg/CEYT4g4raR 
<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://discord.gg/CEYT4g4raR__;!!LIr3w8kk_Xxm!vpNRJvplFb8_4ZBCb0G5CxY2uj8SkWdOl2VUqXRIXa5Y0PpmFBYiq_pAtIA_N3cis6hij4KzdI8K928O$>!

-- 
Sven Koenig
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
University of Southern California
idm-lab.org
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