A proposal on multi-agent static path planning strategy for minimizing radiation dose

To minimize the cumulative radiation dose, various path-finding approaches for single agent have been proposed. However, for emergence situations such as nuclear power plant accident, these methods cannot be effectively utilized for evacuating a large number of workers because no multi-agent method is valid to conduct the mission. In this study, a novel algorithm for solving the multi-agent path-finding problem is proposed using the conflict-based search approach and the objective function redefined in terms of the cumulative radiation dose. The proposed method can find multi paths that all agents arrive at the destinations with reducing the overall radiation dose. To verify the proposed method, three problems were defined. In the single-agent problem, the objective function proposed in this study reduces the cumulative dose by 82% compared with that of the shortest distance algorithm in experiment environment of this study. It was also verified in the two multi-agent problems that multi paths with minimized the overall radiation dose, in which all agents can reach the destination without collision, can be found. The method proposed in this study will contribute to establishing evacuation plans for improving the safety of workers in radiation-related facilities.