Here's a program that finds a shortest solution. To make things simpler, I only consider moves that slide a piece 1 unit (so sliding a piece two units to the right counts as 2 moves). To consider multi-unit slides as a single move, just change how $moves is created in the setup phase. 
#!/usr/bin/perl

use 5.010;

use strict;
use warnings;

my %C;   # Cache of seen positions.
my @Q;   # Queue of position to work on.

my $start = [[[3, 1], [3, 2]],
             [[3, 4], [4, 4], [5, 4]],
             [[2, 5], [3, 5]],
             [[4, 5], [5, 5], [6, 5]],
             [[1, 3], [1, 4], [1, 5]],
             [[4, 6], [5, 6]]];

$start = [[[3, 1], [3, 2]],             #  A
          [[1, 1], [1, 2], [1, 3]],     #  B
          [[1, 5], [1, 6]],             #  C
          [[2, 3], [3, 3]],             #  D
          [[2, 4], [2, 5]],             #  E
          [[2, 6], [3, 6]],             #  F
          [[4, 6], [5, 6], [6, 6]],     #  G
          [[4, 1], [5, 1]],             #  H
          [[6, 1], [6, 2], [6, 3]],     #  I
          [[5, 2], [5, 3]],             #  J
          [[5, 4], [6, 4]],             #  K
          [[4, 5], [5, 5]],             #  L
          [[4, 3], [4, 4]],             #  M
         ] if 1;

my $moves;
foreach my $piece (@$start) {
    if ($$piece[0][0] == $$piece[1][0]) {
        push @$moves, [[0, 1], [0, -1]]
    }
    else {
        push @$moves, [[1, 0], [-1, 0]]
    }
}

#
# Uses the fact board size < 10.
#
sub flatten ($) {join "", map {map {@$_} @$_} @{$_[0]}}
             
#
# Return 1 if a position is valid. No pieces outside the board,
# no overlapping pieces. Only key piece allowed in exit.
#
sub valid ($) {
    my %seen;
    my $pos = shift;
    foreach my $piece (@$pos) {
        foreach my $part (@$piece) {
            my ($x, $y) = @$part;
            return 0 if $x < 1 || $y < 1 || $x > 6;
            return 0 if $y > 6 && $x != 3;  # Exit.
            return 0 if $seen{$x, $y}++;
        }
    }
    return 1;   
}

#
# Return 1 if the position is solved.
#
sub solved ($) {${$_[0]}[0][1][1] == 7}
    
#
# Return a copy of the position
#
sub copy ($) {[map {[map {[@$_]} @$_]} @{$_[0]}]}
 
sub move ($$$) {
    my ($pos, $piece, $move) = @_;
    my $copy = copy $pos;
    foreach my $cell (@{$$copy[$piece]}) {
        $$cell[$_] += $$move[$_] for 0, 1;
    }
    $copy;
}

sub move2text ($) {
    my $move = shift;
    if ($$move[0] ==  0 && $$move[1] ==  1) {return "right"}
    if ($$move[0] ==  0 && $$move[1] == -1) {return "left"}
    if ($$move[0] ==  1 && $$move[1] ==  0) {return "down"}
    if ($$move[0] == -1 && $$move[1] ==  0) {return "up"}
    die;
}
         
sub print_solution {
    my $s = length scalar @_;
    for (my $i = 0; $i < @_; $i++) {
        my ($piece, $direction) = @{$_[$i]};
        printf "%${s}d. %s -> %s\n", $i + 1, chr(ord('A') + $piece), $
+direction;
    }
    say "Total number of examined positions: ", scalar keys %C;
}
    
die "Not a valid starting position" unless valid $start;

$C{flatten $start}++;
push @Q, [$start];
 
while (@Q) {
    my ($P, @moves) = @{shift @Q};
    
    #
    # Calculate all moves. Filter out those that are invalid.
    #
    foreach my $piece (0 .. $#{$moves}) {
        foreach my $m (0, 1) {
            my $move = $$moves[$piece][$m];
            my $P_prime = move $P, $piece, $move;
            next unless valid $P_prime;     # Not a valid move.
            next if $C{flatten $P_prime}++; # Seen position.
            if (solved $P_prime) {
                print_solution @moves, [$piece, move2text $move];
                exit 0;
            }
            push @Q, [$P_prime, @moves, [$piece, move2text $move]];
        }
    }
}
    
say "No solution";
exit 1;

__END__
 1. C -> left
 2. F -> up  
 3. G -> up   
 4. L -> up   
 5. M -> left
 6. K -> up  
 7. I -> right
 8. H -> down
 9. I -> right
10. I -> right
11. K -> up  
12. J -> right
13. J -> right
14. M -> left
15. D -> down
16. D -> down
17. A -> right
18. D -> down 
19. M -> right
20. H -> up   
21. H -> up   
22. H -> up   
23. M -> left
24. D -> up
25. I -> left
26. G -> down
27. F -> down
28. C -> right
29. B -> right
30. H -> up
31. A -> left
32. D -> up
33. J -> left
34. J -> left
35. J -> left 
36. D -> down 
37. A -> right
38. H -> down
39. B -> left 
40. C -> left
41. F -> up   
42. K -> down 
43. A -> right
44. L -> down 
45. A -> right
46. A -> right
47. A -> right
Total number of examined positions: 5031

[download]
I don't have a board handy, so I haven't actually checked whether the solution is valid.

In reply to Re: Puzzle solver (rush hour) by JavaFan
in thread Puzzle solver (rush hour) by Ratazong

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