CoEnv: Driving Embodied Multi-Agent Collaboration via Compositional Environment
Organizations: Shanghai Jiao Tong University · Shanghai AI Laboratory · Harbin Institute of Technology · University of Science and Technology of China ·
Abstract
Multi-agent embodied systems hold promise for complex collaborative manipulation, yet face critical challenges in spatial coordination, temporal reasoning, and shared workspace awareness. Inspired by human collaboration where cognitive planning occurs separately from physical execution, we introduce the concept of compositional environment -- a synergistic integration of real-world and simulation components that enables multiple robotic agents to perceive intentions and operate within a unified decision-making space. Building on this concept, we present CoEnv, a framework that leverages simulation for safe strategy exploration while ensuring reliable real-world deployment. CoEnv operates through three stages: real-to-sim scene reconstruction that digitizes physical workspaces, VLM-driven action synthesis supporting both real-time planning with high-level interfaces and iterative planning with code-based trajectory generation, and validated sim-to-real transfer with collision detection for safe deployment. Extensive experiments on challenging multi-arm manipulation benchmarks demonstrate CoEnv's effectiveness in achieving high task success rates and execution efficiency, establishing a new paradigm for multi-agent embodied AI.
Figures & tables
| w/o Adaptive Camera | w/o Checkpoint Verif. | |||||||
| Task | SR | SR | ||||||
| Cube Stacking | 6/10 | 5/10 | – | 5/10 | 4/10 | 4/10 | – | 4/10 |
| Ball Pickup | 10/10 | 6/10 | – | 6/10 | 10/10 | 2/10 | – | 2/10 |
| Transfer Cylinder | 6/10 | 2/10 | 0/10 | 0/10 | 6/10 | 0/10 | 0/10 | 0/10 |
| Place Cucumber | 9/10 | 6/10 | 4/10 | 4/10 | 6/10 | 8/10 | 4/10 | 4/10 |
| Brush Box | 10/10 | 8/10 | 0/10 | 0/10 | 9/10 | 8/10 | 0/10 | 0/10 |
Appendix figures & tables5 assets
Supplementary material from the paper’s appendix.
Appendix
| Task | Description |
|---|---|
| Two-Agent (Franka 2) | |
| Cube Stacking | Two arms stack a blue cube and a red cube separately. |
| Ball Pickup | Bimanual coordination to lift a soccer ball with balanced contact. |
| Transfer Cylinder | Pick up a cylinder, perform a bimanual handover and place it at the target location. |
| Three-Agent (Franka + AgileX Piper 2) | |
| Place Cucumber | Pick up the pot lid and place the cucumbers into the pot. |
| Task | Milestone | Criterion |
|---|---|---|
| Cube Stacking | Both cubes are successfully grasped and lifted. | |
| The cubes are stably stacked. | ||
| Ball Pickup | Both arms reach the ball with contact poses. | |
| The ball is successfully lifted off the surface. | ||
| Transfer Cylinder | The cylinder is grasped and lifted by the first arm. | |
| The second arm successfully receives the cylinder. |
| Aspect | Interactive Mode | Iterative Mode |
|---|---|---|
| Foundation model | GPT-5 (VLM) | Claude Code (code agent) |
| Decision granularity | One action per VLM call | Full program per iteration |
| Feedback signal | Real-time images + state | Post-hoc checkpoints + state |
| API calls / task | 30+ VLM calls | 1–5 code generations |
| Error correction | Adjust next action online | Rewrite code offline |
| Planning | Multi-round visual analysis | Structured system prompt |
| Category | Content |
|---|---|
| Gripper specifications | Maximum opening width and finger length for each robot type (Franka, Piper). |
| Orientation semantics | Delta-based rotation convention; mapping from pitch/yaw values to physical gripper directions. |
| Grasp strategy guidelines | Shape-conditioned heuristics (top-down for flat objects, horizontal for upright cylinders, cooperative bimanual for oversized objects); edge-grasp safety margins; fingertip positioning rules (overshoot for horizontal grasps, low- target for flat objects). |
| Workspace limits | Per-robot reachable workspace ranges. |
| Collision avoidance | Awareness that arm links sweep a volume beyond the TCP; minimum clearance thresholds; retreat-toward-base principle for clearing shared workspace. |
Multi-Robot Coordination
Multi-robot coordination studies how teams of robots plan, communicate, allocate tasks, and act together safely and efficiently.
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