Multi-Agent Navigation of a Multi-Storey Parking Garage via Game Theory

Abstract

Intelligent autonomous vehicles navigating in a smart city environment need to find a parking spot, and often resort to multi-storey parking facilities. The task of efficiently using parking resources is at odds with the competitive nature of autonomous vehicles operating in a selfish way. In this paper, we model the problem through game theory and we evaluate the efficiency of a distributed decision mechanism. At the same time, we also gain insight on the complexity of identifying efficient solutions and hint that the overall problem is difficult to solve without compromising the inherent selfish objective of each individual vehicle. We also propose some distributed simulation scenarios to capture some aspects of the competition, thereby suggesting possible further analytical studies.