Multi-Agent Coordination

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Overview

Multi-agent coordination studies how agents with partial information, different capabilities, or competing incentives can act together in settings such as robot teams, traffic networks, resource allocation, and language-model workflows. Common approaches include decentralized and centralized multi-agent reinforcement learning, game-theoretic planning, role and task assignment, and communication through messages, shared memory, or learned coordination policies. Recent work also develops orchestration protocols and benchmarks for language-model agents, measuring not just task success but information use, role adherence, safety, and coordination failures. A central tension is that communication and additional agents can improve complex teamwork but also introduce overhead, propagate errors, or make performance worse; individual reasoning ability alone does not guarantee effective cooperation.

Latest papers

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520 papers84 papers in the last four weeks, up 91% on the four weeks before. 0.5% of all new papers.

  1. Strategic Algorithmic Monoculture: Experimental Evidence from Coordination Games

    Apr 10, 2026Gonzalo Ballestero, Hadi Hosseini, Samarth Khanna +1Multi-Agent CoordinationMulti-Agent LLMs

    Department of Economics, Pennsylvania State University · Department of Informatics and Intelligent Systems, Pennsylvania State University

  2. Decentralized Opinion-Integrated Decision making at Unsignalized Intersections via Signed Networks

    Apr 10, 2026Bhaskar Varma, Ying Shuai Quan, Karl D. von Ellenrieder +1Multi-Agent CoordinationIntelligent Transportation Systems

    Faculty of Engineering, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy · Mechatronics Group, Department of Electrical Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden

  3. C2^2T: Captioning-Structure and LLM-Aligned Common-Sense Reward Learning for Traffic--Vehicle Coordination

    Apr 10, 2026Yuyang Chen, Kaiyan Zhao, Yiming Wang +3Traffic Signal ControlMulti-Agent Coordination

    The State Key Laboratory of Internet of Things for Smart City, University of Macau · Wuhan University · Computer and Information Science, University of Macau +1

  4. Multi-Agent Decision-Focused Learning via Value-Aware Sequential Communication

    Apr 10, 2026Benjamin Amoh, Geoffrey Parker, Wesley MarreroMulti-Agent CoordinationMulti-Agent Communication

    Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College

  5. MPAC: A Multi-Principal Agent Coordination Protocol for Interoperable Multi-Agent Collaboration

    Apr 10, 2026Kaiyang Qian, Xinmin Fang, Zhengxiong LiMulti-Agent CoordinationAgent Communication Protocols

    University of Colorado Denver (CU Denver)

  6. More Capable, Less Cooperative? When LLMs Fail At Zero-Cost Collaboration

    Apr 9, 2026Advait Yadav, Sid Black, Oliver SourbutMulti-Agent CoordinationMulti-Agent Collaboration

    MATS · University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign · UK AI Security Institute +1

  7. Learning to Coordinate over Networks with Bounded Rationality

    Apr 9, 2026Zhewei Wang, Emrah Akyol, Marcos M. VasconcelosMulti-Agent CoordinationBounded Rationality

  8. Asynchronous Distributed Bandit Submodular Maximization under Heterogeneous Communication Delays

    Apr 7, 2026Pranjal Sharma, Zirui Xu, Vasileios TzoumasSubmodular OptimizationDistributed Optimization

    Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA

  9. Strategic Delay and Coordination Efficiency in Global Games

    Apr 7, 2026Shinkyu Park, Behrouz Touri, Marcos M. VasconcelosMulti-Agent CoordinationImperfect-Information Games

    Electrical and Computer Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, 23955, Saudi Arabia · Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, Champaign, IL 61820 · Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA

  10. Governance-Constrained Agentic AI: Blockchain-Enforced Human Oversight for Safety-Critical Wildfire Monitoring

    Apr 5, 2026Ali Akarma, Toqeer Ali Syed, Salman Jan +2Human Oversight of AIAI Agent Governance

    AI Center, Faculty of Computer and Information Systems, Islamic University of Madinah, Madinah 42351, Saudi Arabia · Faculty of Computer Studies, Arab Open University-Bahrain, Manama 32038, Bahrain · Department of Computer Science, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur 63100, Pakistan +1

  11. Ledger-State Stigmergy: A Formal Framework for Indirect Coordination Grounded in Distributed Ledger State

    Apr 5, 2026Fernando Paredes GarcíaMulti-Agent CoordinationShared-Memory Multi-Agent Systems

    Independent Researcher

  12. Do Agent Societies Develop Intellectual Elites? The Hidden Power Laws of Collective Cognition in LLM Multi-Agent Systems

    Apr 3, 2026Kavana Venkatesh, Jiaming CuiMulti-Agent CoordinationMulti-Agent LLMs

    Department of Computer Science, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA

  13. High Volatility and Action Bias Distinguish LLMs from Humans in Group Coordination

    Apr 2, 2026Sahaj Singh Maini, Robert L. Goldstone, Zoran TiganjMulti-Agent CoordinationLLM Agents

    Department of Computer Science, Indiana University Bloomington · Cognitive Science Program, Indiana University Bloomington · Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University Bloomington

  14. Auction-Based Online Policy Adaptation for Evolving Objectives

    Apr 2, 2026Guruprerana Shabadi, Kaushik MallikMulti-Objective Reinforcement LearningMulti-Agent Coordination

    University of Pennsylvania, United States · IMDEA Software Institute, Spain

  15. Role Differentiation in a Coupled Resource Ecology under Multi-Level Selection

    Apr 1, 2026Siddharth Chaturvedi, Ahmed El-Gazzar, Marcel van GervenEmergent Behavior in Multi-Agent SystemsSocial Dilemmas

    Department of Machine Learning and Neural Computing, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University

  16. Competition and Cooperation of LLM Agents in Games

    Apr 1, 2026Jiayi Yao, Cong Chen, Baosen ZhangLLM AgentsMulti-Agent LLM Systems

    Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle. · Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College.

  17. CASCADE: Cascaded Scoped Communication for Multi-Agent Re-planning in Disrupted Industrial Environments

    Apr 1, 2026Mingjie BiMulti-Agent CoordinationMulti-Agent Planning

    State Key Laboratory of General Artificial Intelligence, Beijing Institute for General Artificial Intelligence (BIGAI), Beijing, China

  18. Diffusion-Guided Cooperative Policy Learning for Target Tracking Based on Underwater Mobile Agent Networks

    Mar 31, 2026Jiaao Ma, Chuan Lin, Guangjie Han +3Cooperative MARLMulti-Robot Coordination

    Software College, Northeastern University, Shenyang, China · Key Laboratory of Maritime Intelligent Network Information Technology, Ministry of Education, Hohai University · College of Computer Science and Software Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, 210013, China +1

  19. Drop the Hierarchy and Roles: How Self-Organizing LLM Agents Outperform Designed Structures

    Mar 30, 2026Victoria DochkinaMulti-Agent SystemsMulti-Agent LLMs

    Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), Moscow, Russia

  20. Fine-Tuning Large Language Models for Cooperative Tactical Deconfliction of Small Unmanned Aerial Systems

    Mar 30, 2026Iman Sharifi, Alex Zongo, Peng WeiLanguage Model-Based ControlMulti-Agent Coordination

    George Washington University

  21. Distributed Online Submodular Maximization under Communication Delays: A Simultaneous Decision-Making Approach

    Mar 29, 2026Zirui Xu, Vasileios TzoumasSubmodular OptimizationMulti-Agent Coordination

    Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA

  22. Toward Reliable Evaluation of LLM-Based Financial Multi-Agent Systems: Taxonomy, Coordination Primacy, and Cost Awareness

    Mar 29, 2026Phat Nguyen, Thang PhamMulti-Agent LLMsLLM Agent Evaluation

    Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta GA 30332, USA · Adobe Inc., San Jose CA 95110, USA

  23. Agents on a Tree: Pathwise Coordination for Multi-Objective Molecular Optimization

    Mar 27, 2026Jia Zhang, Tengfei Ma, Tianle Li +3Molecular OptimizationMulti-Objective Optimization

    College of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, Hunan University · College of Information and Science, Hunan Normal University.

  24. CRAFT: Grounded Multi-Agent Coordination Under Partial Information

    Mar 26, 2026Abhijnan Nath, Hannah VanderHoeven, Nikhil KrishnaswamyMulti-Agent CoordinationMulti-Agent Communication

    Situated Grounding and Natural Language (SIGNAL) Lab∗ Department of Computer Science, Colorado State University Fort Collins, CO 80523 USA

  25. Belief-Driven Multi-Agent Collaboration via Approximate Perfect Bayesian Equilibrium for Social Simulation

    Mar 26, 2026Weiwei Fang, Lin Li, Kaize Shi +2Multi-Agent CollaborationMulti-Agent Coordination

    Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China · University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Australia · The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China +1

  26. COIN: Collaborative Interaction-Aware Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning for Self-Driving Systems

    Mar 26, 2026Yifeng Zhang, Jieming Chen, Tingguang Zhou +4Centralized Training with Decentralized ExecutionMulti-Agent Coordination

    Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Design and Engineering, National University of Singapore, 21 Lower Kent Ridge Rd, 119077, Singapore · Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, 100872, China · School of Vehicle and Mobility, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

  27. CoordLight: Learning Decentralized Coordination for Network-Wide Traffic Signal Control

    Mar 25, 2026Yifeng Zhang, Harsh Goel, Peizhuo Li +3Traffic Signal ControlMulti-Agent Coordination

    Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore · Chandra Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin · Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  28. The Specification Gap: Coordination Failure Under Partial Knowledge in Code Agents

    Mar 25, 2026Camilo Chacón SartoriMulti-Agent CodingMulti-Agent Coordination

    Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), CSIC and BIST, Campus UAB, Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain

  29. Robust Distributed Cooperative Path-Following and Local Replanning for Multi-UAVs Under Differentiated Low-Altitude Paths

    Mar 25, 2026Zimao Sheng, Zirui Yu, Hong'an YangDistributed ControlUAV Navigation

    School of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, China · Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin, China

  30. A Multimodal Framework for Human-Multi-Agent Interaction

    Mar 24, 2026Shaid Hasan, Breenice Lee, Sujan Sarker +1Human-Robot InteractionHuman-AI Interaction

    University of Virginia