Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning

Also known as MARL

Ask about this topic

Overview

Multi-agent reinforcement learning studies how multiple decision-makers learn when each agent’s actions affect both the environment and other agents, across cooperative, competitive, and mixed-motive settings. Common approaches include centralized training with decentralized execution, independent or shared actor-critic policies, value factorization such as QMIX, self-play and game-solving methods, and graph-based communication or hierarchical policies. Researchers test these methods in benchmarks such as SMAC, MPE, Overcooked, and multi-agent MuJoCo, and apply them to robotics, traffic, wireless networks, energy systems, and language-agent workflows. A central challenge is scaling coordination and credit assignment while keeping learning stable under non-stationarity and policies robust, safe, and fair with unfamiliar partners and conditions.

Latest papers

CardsList

373 papers47 papers in the last four weeks, up 81% on the four weeks before. 0.3% of all new papers.

  1. A Robust and Efficient Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning Framework for Traffic Signal Control

    Mar 12, 2026Sheng-You Huang, Hsiao-Chuan Chang, Yen-Chi Chen +6Centralized Training with Decentralized ExecutionReinforcement Learning

    National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University · Academia Sinica · Kochi University of Technology +1

  2. Exploiting Expertise of Non-Expert and Diverse Agents in Social Bandit Learning: A Free Energy Approach

    Mar 12, 2026Erfan Mirzaei, Seyed Pooya Shariatpanahi, Alireza Tavakoli +2Multi-Armed BanditsMulti-Agent Reinforcement Learning

    The authors are with the Cognitive Systems Lab., School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

  3. Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning for UAV-Based Chemical Plume Source Localization

    Mar 12, 2026Zhirun Li, Derek Hollenbeck, Ruikun Wu +4Multi-Agent Reinforcement LearningUAV Navigation

    Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131 USA · Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Merced, CA 95343 USA · Department of Electrical Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401 USA +3

  4. Learning to Assist: Physics-Grounded Human-Human Control via Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning

    Mar 11, 2026Yuto Shibata, Kashu Yamazaki, Lalit Jayanti +3Humanoid Robot ControlAssistive Robotics

    Carnegie Mellon University · Keio AI Research Center · Keio University

  5. UAV-MARL: Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning for Time-Critical and Dynamic Medical Supply Delivery

    Mar 11, 2026Islam Guven, Mehmet ParlakMulti-Agent CoordinationMulti-Agent Reinforcement Learning

    ICTEAM, Université catholique de Louvain Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

  6. COHORT: Hybrid RL for Collaborative Large DNN Inference on Multi-Robot Systems Under Real-Time Constraints

    Mar 11, 2026Mohammad Saeid Anwar, Anuradha Ravi, Indrajeet Ghosh +3Efficient Neural Network InferenceMulti-Robot Task Allocation

    University of Maryland Baltimore County · DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory

  7. Quantum entanglement provides a competitive advantage in adversarial games

    Mar 11, 2026Peiyong Wang, Kieran Hymas, James QuachQuantum RLQuantum Machine Learning

    Technology, CSIRO Clayton, Research Way, Clayton, VIC 3168, Australia.

  8. Octopus-inspired Distributed Control for Soft Robotic Arms: A Graph Neural Network-Based Attention Policy with Environmental Interaction

    Mar 10, 2026Linxin Hou, Qirui Wu, Zhihang Qin +2Continuum Robot ControlDecentralized MARL

    Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore · Department of Computer Science, National University of Singapore, Singapore · Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore +2

  9. Code-Space Response Oracles: Generating Interpretable Multi-Agent Policies with Large Language Models

    Mar 10, 2026Daniel Hennes, Zun Li, John Schultz +1Multi-Agent Reinforcement LearningInterpretability in RL

    Google DeepMind

  10. Strategically Robust Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning with Linear Function Approximation

    Mar 10, 2026Jake Gonzales, Max Horwitz, Eric Mazumdar +1Multi-Agent Reinforcement LearningGame-Theoretic RL

    Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Washington · Computing & Mathematical Sciences, California Institute of Technology

  11. Less is More: Robust Zero-Communication 3D Pursuit-Evasion via Representational Parsimony

    Mar 9, 2026Jialin Ying, Zhihao Li, Zicheng Dong +2Multi-Agent SystemsMulti-Agent Coordination

    Department of Automation, Central South University, Changsha, China

  12. NePPO: Near-Potential Policy Optimization for General-Sum Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning

    Mar 7, 2026Addison Kalanther, Sanika Bharvirkar, Shankar Sastry +1Multi-Agent Reinforcement LearningGame-Theoretic RL

    Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, UC Berkeley · Electrical and Computer Engineering, Data Science & Artificial Intelligence Institute, Johns Hopkins University

  13. The Trace Is the State: Exact Credit Assignment for LLM Agent Teams

    Mar 6, 2026Yanjun Chen, Yirong Sun, Hanlin Wang +5Credit AssignmentCounterfactual Credit Assignment

    Eastern Institute of Technology · The Hong Kong Polytechnic University · Harbin Institute of Technology

  14. Reinforcing the World's Edge: A Continual Learning Problem in the Multi-Agent-World Boundary

    Mar 6, 2026Dane MalenfantNon-Stationary RLDecentralized MARL

    School of Computer Science McGill University Mila - The Québec AI Institute

  15. Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning with Submodular Reward

    Mar 6, 2026Wenjing Chen, Chengyuan Qian, Shuo Xing +2Cooperative MARLMulti-Agent Reinforcement Learning

    Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Texas A&M University

  16. Competitive Multi-Operator Reinforcement Learning for Joint Pricing and Fleet Rebalancing in AMoD Systems

    Mar 5, 2026Emil Kragh Toft, Carolin Schmidt, Daniele Gammelli +1Dynamic PricingMulti-Agent Reinforcement Learning

    Technical University of Denmark, Denmark · Technical University of Munich, Germany · Stanford University, USA

  17. SCoUT: Scalable Communication via Utility-Guided Temporal Grouping in Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning

    Mar 5, 2026Manav Vora, Gokul Puthumanaillam, Hiroyasu Tsukamoto +1Multi-Agent CommunicationMulti-Agent Reinforcement Learning

    University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  18. MAGE: Meta-Reinforcement Learning for Language Agents toward Strategic Exploration and Exploitation

    Mar 4, 2026Lu Yang, Zelai Xu, Minyang Xie +4RL for LLM AgentsMeta-Reinforcement Learning

    Tsinghua University

  19. SPARC: Spatial-Aware Path Planning via Attentive Agent Communication

    Mar 3, 2026Sayang Mu, Xiangyu Wu, Bo AnMulti-Robot Motion PlanningDecentralized Multi-Agent Motion Planning

    Nanyang Technological University Singapore

  20. Generalized Per-Agent Advantage Estimation for Multi-Agent Policy Optimization

    Mar 3, 2026Seongmin Kim, Giseung Park, Woojun Kim +3Multi-Agent Reinforcement LearningSample-Efficient RL

    KAIST Daejeon, Korea · University of Toronto Toronto, Ontario, Canada · Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA +1

  21. Personalized Multi-Agent Average Reward TD-Learning via Joint Linear Approximation

    Mar 2, 2026Leo Muxing Wang, Pengkun Yang, Lili SuTemporal-Difference LearningMulti-Agent Reinforcement Learning

    Northeastern University · Tsinghua University

  22. Epistemic Gain, Aleatoric Cost: Uncertainty Decomposition in Multi-Agent Debate for Math Reasoning

    Mar 1, 2026Dan Qiao, Binbin Chen, Fengyu Cai +7Multi-Agent DebateEpistemic Uncertainty

    School of Data Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, China · ByteDance, Beijing, China · Technical University of Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany +2

  23. MO-MIX: Multi-Objective Multi-Agent Cooperative Decision-Making With Deep Reinforcement Learning

    Feb 28, 2026Tianmeng Hu, Biao Luo, Chunhua Yang +1Multi-Agent Reinforcement LearningMulti-Objective Reinforcement Learning

    School of Automation, Central South University, Changsha, 410012, China. · Texas A&M University at Qatar, Doha, 23874, Qatar.

  24. Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning for Dynamic Pricing: Balancing Profitability,Stability and Fairness

    Feb 28, 2026Krishna Kumar Neelakanta Pillai Santha Kumari AmmaDynamic PricingReinforcement Learning

  25. Conservative Equilibrium Discovery in Offline Game-Theoretic Multiagent Reinforcement Learning

    Feb 27, 2026Austin A. Nguyen, Michael P. WellmanReinforcement LearningGame Theory

    University of Michigan

  26. TSC: Topology-Conditioned Stackelberg Coordination for Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning in Interactive Driving

    Feb 27, 2026Xiaotong Zhang, Gang Xiong, Yuanjing Wang +3Multi-Agent CoordinationDecentralized MARL

    State Key Laboratory of Multimodal Artificial Intelligence Systems, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China · School of Artificial Intelligence, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China · Department of Natural Sciences, University of Durham, Durham DH1 3LE, United Kingdom +4

  27. RLShield: Practical Multi-Agent RL for Financial Cyber Defense with Attack-Surface MDPs and Real-Time Response Orchestration

    Feb 26, 2026Srikumar NayakAutonomous Cyber DefenseCybersecurity

    Incedo Inc, USA

  28. Learning-based Multi-agent Race Strategies in Formula 1

    Feb 26, 2026Giona Fieni, Joschua Wüthrich, Marc-Philippe Neumann +1Autonomous RacingMulti-Agent Reinforcement Learning

  29. Pixel2Catch: Multi-Agent Sim-to-Real Transfer for Agile Manipulation with a Single RGB Camera

    Feb 26, 2026Seongyong Kim, Junhyeon Cho, Kang-Won Lee +1Robotic ManipulationDynamic Robotic Manipulation

    Dongguk University

  30. Hierarchical Lead Critic based Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning

    Feb 25, 2026David Eckel, Henri MeeßMulti-Agent Reinforcement LearningCooperative MARL

    Fraunhofer Institute IVI, Ingolstadt, Germany