Multi-Objective Reinforcement Learning

Also known as MORL

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Overview

Multi-objective reinforcement learning studies sequential decisions where goals such as safety, efficiency, fairness, and reward quality can conflict. Common approaches learn a set of Pareto-optimal policies or condition one policy on user preferences, using methods such as scalarization, vector-valued critics, policy-gradient updates, and multi-agent coordination. Researchers apply these methods in robotics, traffic and energy control, recommendation, and language-model alignment, evaluating trade-offs with Pareto-front coverage, hypervolume, and task-specific benchmarks. A central challenge is balancing reward signals without letting easier objectives dominate or causing reward hacking, while ensuring policies reliably respond to changing preferences.

Latest papers

CardsList

146 papers25 papers in the last four weeks, up 150% on the four weeks before. 0.1% of all new papers.

  1. PCHC: Enabling Preference Conditioned Humanoid Control via Multi-Objective Reinforcement Learning

    Mar 25, 2026Huanyu Li, Dewei Wang, Xinmiao Wang +4Robotic ControlHumanoid Robot Control

    Harbin Institute of Technology · University of Science and Technology of China · Harbin Engineering University +2

  2. Learning What Matters Now: Dynamic Preference Inference under Contextual Shifts

    Mar 24, 2026Xianwei Cao, Dou Quan, Zhenliang Zhang +1Preference LearningMulti-Objective Reinforcement Learning

    School of Artificial Intelligence, Xidian University, Xi’an, 710071, China · State Key Laboratory of General Artificial Intelligence, BIGAI, Beijing, China

  3. TREX: Trajectory Explanations for Multi-Objective Reinforcement Learning

    Mar 23, 2026Dilina Rajapakse, Juan C. Rosero, Ivana DusparicInterpretability in RLMulti-Objective Reinforcement Learning

    Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

  4. PA2D-MORL: Pareto Ascent Directional Decomposition based Multi-Objective Reinforcement Learning

    Mar 20, 2026Tianmeng Hu, Biao LuoMulti-Objective Reinforcement LearningRobotic RL

    Central South University

  5. Agentic-Kube: A Graph-Enhanced Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning Framework for Multi-Objective Kubernetes Scheduling

    Mar 12, 2026Hamed HamzehMulti-Objective Reinforcement LearningCooperative MARL

    University of Westminster Computer Science and Engineering London, United Kingdom

  6. MO-Playground: Massively Parallelized Multi-Objective Reinforcement Learning for Robotics

    Mar 10, 2026Neil Janwani, Ellen Novoseller, Vernon J. Lawhern +1GPU-Accelerated RLMulti-Objective Reinforcement Learning

    Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA USA · DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory, MD, USA

  7. Breaking the Bias Barrier in Concave Multi-Objective Reinforcement Learning

    Mar 9, 2026Swetha Ganesh, Vaneet AggarwalNatural Policy GradientMulti-Objective Reinforcement Learning

    Purdue University, USA 47907

  8. Preference-Conditioned Reinforcement Learning for Space-Time Efficient Online 3D Bin Packing

    Mar 8, 2026Nikita Sarawgi, Omey M. Manyar, Fan Wang +3RoboticsMulti-Objective Reinforcement Learning

    Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA. · Amazon Robotics, North Reading, MA, USA.

  9. Adaptive Double-Booking Strategy for Outpatient Scheduling Using Multi-Objective Reinforcement Learning

    Mar 7, 2026Ninda Nurseha Amalina, Heungjo AnHealthcareMulti-Objective Reinforcement Learning

    Department of Industrial Engineering, Kumoh National Institute of Technology, Gumi City, South Korea

  10. Beyond Scalar Rewards: Distributional Reinforcement Learning with Preordered Objectives for Safe and Reliable Autonomous Driving

    Mar 6, 2026Ahmed Abouelazm, Jonas Michel, Daniel Bogdoll +2Multi-Objective Reinforcement LearningRL for Autonomous Driving

    FZI Research Center for Information Technology, Germany · Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany

  11. MIRACL: A Diverse Meta-Reinforcement Learning for Multi-Objective Multi-Echelon Combinatorial Supply Chain Optimisation

    Mar 5, 2026Rifny Rachman, Josh Tingey, Richard Allmendinger +3Supply Chain OptimizationMulti-Objective Reinforcement Learning

    The University of Manchester, United Kingdom · Peak AI, Ltd, United Kingdom

  12. Decoupling Task and Behavior: A Two-Stage Reward Curriculum in Reinforcement Learning for Robotics

    Mar 5, 2026Kilian Freitag, Knut Åkesson, Morteza Haghir ChehreghaniRL for RoboticsReinforcement Learning

    Chalmers University of Technology · Gothenburg University

  13. Reward-Conditioned Reinforcement Learning

    Mar 5, 2026Michal Nauman, Marek Cygan, Pieter AbbeelReinforcement LearningOff-Policy RL

    University of Warsaw · University of Warsaw, Nomagic · UC Berkeley, Amazon FAR

  14. Alternating Reinforcement Learning with Contextual Rubric Rewards: Beyond the Scalarization Strategy

    Mar 4, 2026Guangchen Lan, Lian Xiong, Xin Zhou +7Reinforcement LearningRubric-Based RL

    Amazon · University of California, San Diego

  15. [Re] FairDICE: A Fair Tradeoff in Multi-objective Offline RL

    Mar 3, 2026Peter Adema, Karim Galliamov, Aleksey Evstratovskiy +1Offline RLMulti-Objective Reinforcement Learning

    Informatics Institute, University of Amsterdam

  16. Post Hoc Extraction of Pareto Fronts for Continuous Control

    Mar 3, 2026Raghav Thakar, Gaurav Dixit, Kagan TumerMulti-Objective Reinforcement LearningPareto Optimization

    The Collaborative Robotics and Intelligent Systems (CoRIS) Institute Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA

  17. 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.

  18. Multi-Objective Reinforcement Learning for Large-Scale Tote Allocation in Human-Robot Collaborative Fulfillment Centers

    Feb 27, 2026Sikata Sengupta, Guangyi Liu, Omer Gottesman +4Multi-Objective Reinforcement LearningSupply Chain Management

    Department of Computer and Information Science, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA · Amazon.

  19. Balancing Multiple Objectives in Urban Traffic Control with Reinforcement Learning from AI Feedback

    Feb 24, 2026Chenyang Zhao, Vinny Cahill, Ivana DusparicMulti-Objective Reinforcement LearningPreference-Based RL

    Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

  20. PRISM: Parallel Reward Integration with Symmetry for MORL

    Feb 20, 2026Finn van der Knaap, Kejiang Qian, Zheng Xu +1Equivariant Policy LearningReinforcement Learning

    University of Edinburgh · Meta Superintelligence Labs.

  21. Flow Matching for Offline Reinforcement Learning with Discrete Actions

    Feb 5, 2026Fairoz Nower Khan, Nabuat Zaman Nahim, Ruiquan Huang +2Markov ChainsReinforcement Learning

    Department of Computer Science, University of Kentucky · Department of Computing and Information Sciences, Rochester Institute of Technology

  22. Spatiotemporal Continual Federated Learning for Agentic Multi-UAV Edge Networks: Mitigating Catastrophic Forgetting

    Jan 29, 2026Chuan-Chi LaiMulti-Objective Reinforcement LearningFederated RL

    Department of Communications Engineering, National Chung Cheng University, Minxiong Township, Chiayi County 621301, Taiwan · Advanced Institute of Manufacturing with High-tech Innovations (AIM-HI), National Chung Cheng University, Minxiong Township, Chiayi County 621301, Taiwan

  23. GraphAllocBench: A Flexible Benchmark for Preference-Conditioned Multi-Objective Policy Learning

    Jan 28, 2026Zhiheng Jiang, Yunzhe Wang, Ryan Marr +3Multi-Objective Reinforcement LearningRL Benchmarks

    University of California, Los Angeles · USC Institute for Creative Technologies · U.S. Army DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory

  24. Preference-Conditioned Multi-Objective Reinforcement Learning for Tactical Decision Making in Heavy-Duty Vehicles

    Jan 26, 2026Deepthi Pathare, Leo Laine, Morteza Haghir ChehreghaniMulti-Objective Reinforcement LearningRL for Autonomous Driving

    Department of Computer Science and Engineering Chalmers University of Technology and and University of Gothenburg · Department of Mechanics and Maritime Sciences Chalmers University of Technology

  25. Game-Theoretic Understandings of Multi-Agent Systems with Multiple Objectives

    Sep 27, 2025Zixin Lin, Qianyi Tan, Sihong He +1Game TheoryMulti-Objective Reinforcement Learning

    Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Department of Computer Science, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816

  26. Integrated Noise and Safety Management in UAM via A Unified Reinforcement Learning Framework

    Aug 22, 2025Surya Murthy, Zhenyu Gao, John-Paul Clarke +1Multi-Objective Reinforcement LearningCollision Avoidance

    Graduate Research Assistant, Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin · Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, The University of Texas at Austin · Professor and Ernest Cockrell, Jr. Memorial Chair in Engineering, Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, The University of Texas at Austin +1