Multi-Robot Task Allocation

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Overview

Multi-robot task allocation studies how teams divide tasks so robots with different abilities can complete missions efficiently, safely, and reliably. Common approaches include auctions and consensus for distributed assignment, matching and mathematical optimization for structured problems, and reinforcement learning or graph-based policies for dynamic settings. In many applications, allocation is coupled with routing, path planning, scheduling, communication, and constraints such as battery life or shared resources. A central challenge is balancing solution quality with scalability and responsiveness, especially when robots have partial information, unreliable communication, or changing tasks.

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114 papers16 papers in the last four weeks, down 16% on the four weeks before. 0.1% of all new papers.

  1. Tunable Spatial Task Allocation with Application to Maritime Swarms

    Oct 28, 2026Vishnudatta Thota, Tyler Paine, Anastasia BizyaevaMulti-Robot Task AllocationOpinion Dynamics

    Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA, 14853 · Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

  2. EARS-Info: Information-Aware Event-Driven Reallocation for Multi-Robot Exploration

    Oct 27, 2026Kabeh Mohsenzadegan, Vahid Tavakkoli, Kyandoghere KyamakyaMulti-Robot ExplorationMulti-Robot Coordination

    Department of Smart Systems Technologies, University of Klagenfurt, Austria · Faculté Polytechnique, Université de Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo

  3. cuArms: GPU-Accelerated Conflict-Based Planning for Multi-Arm Manipulation

    Oct 26, 2026Philip Huang, Fabio Ramos, Jiaoyang Li +2Multi-Robot Motion PlanningMulti-Task Robotic Manipulation

    NVIDIA · Carnegie Mellon · University of Sydney

  4. MATE-BT: A Behavior-Tree-Based Framework for Hierarchically Decentralized Mission Autonomy in Heterogeneous Multi-Robot Teams

    Oct 26, 2026Sunbeen Lee, Hoseon Gi, Jik Hur +1Multi-Robot SystemsResilient Multi-Robot Coordination

    Department of Artificial Intelligence, Korea Aerospace University, Goyang, Republic of Korea · Korea Aerospace Industries, Ltd., Sacheon, Republic of Korea

  5. UAV-SwarmAgent: Scalable Multi-UAV Reconnaissance and Task Allocation via Code Generation and Vision-Language Reasoning

    Oct 23, 2026Oleg Sautenkov, Yasheerah Yaqoot, Muhammad Ahsan Mustafa +3Aerial RoboticsMulti-Robot Coordination

    Intelligent Space Robotics Laboratory, Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Moscow, Russia · AiRo Lab, Department of Aeronautical and Aviation Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong

  6. Brittle by Design? Multi-Scenario Reinforcement Learning for Robust Mission Coordination in Systems of Systems

    Oct 20, 2026İbrahim Oğuz Çetinkaya, Sajad Khodadadian, Taylan TopcuMulti-Agent CoordinationRobust RL

    Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA

  7. Robot-Task Suitability in Heterogeneous Multi-Robot Task Allocation

    Oct 20, 2026Daniel Weiner, Raj KorpanMulti-Robot Task Allocation

    The Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY), New York, NY, USA · Hunter College and The Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY), New York, NY, USA

  8. A GPU-Resident Pipeline for Multi-Robot 3D Inspection with Limited Perception

    Oct 19, 2026Kryštof Pšenička, Stefan EdelkampRobotic InspectionMulti-Robot Motion Planning

    Department of Theoretical Computer Science and Mathematical Logic, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

  9. CARVS: A Congestion-Aware Algorithm for Online Multi-Agent Pickup-and-Delivery in Human-Collaborative Warehouses

    Oct 17, 2026Chaoran Li, Zeyuan Zhao, Shao ZhangMulti-Agent Path FindingRobotics

    Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Shanghai, China · Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Shanghai, China

  10. Task Structure and Scalability in Multi-Robot Authoring

    Oct 15, 2026Christian Marowski, Byung-Cheol MinMulti-Robot SystemsRobotics

    SMART Lab, Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA

  11. Multi-Agent Deferred-Decision Trajectory Optimization with Anytime-Valid Target Retention for Moving Candidates

    Oct 12, 2026Farbod Siahkali, Mengxue Hou, Vijay GuptaMulti-Agent PlanningTrajectory Optimization

    Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47906, USA · Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA

  12. Competitive Task Allocation with Temporal Proposal Windows and Improved Artificial Potential Fields for Dual-Arm Industrial Manipulation

    Oct 11, 2026Surya Prakash S. K, Bhuvan Narula, Jagannath Prasad Sahoo +3Industrial RoboticsBimanual Robotic Manipulation

    School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, IIT Mandi, Kamand, Mandi, 175005, H.P, India. · R&D, Addverb Technologies Limited, Sec-156, Phase-II, Noida, 201310, UP, India. · Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, IIT Mandi, Kamand, Mandi, 175005, H.P, India. +1

  13. Reinforcement Learning Based Heterogeneous Task Allocation Under Spatio-Temporal Environmental Uncertainty for Multi-Robot Teams

    Oct 11, 2026Xi Lin, Yaxuan Li, Paul Szenher +1Multi-Robot Task AllocationDecentralized MARL

    Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stevens Institute of Technology, 1 Castle Point Terrace, Hoboken, NJ 07030, USA

  14. Embedded Evaluation of Task Admission Coalescing in Decentralized Multi-Robot Systems

    Oct 6, 2026James Lott, Vahraz HonaryMulti-Robot SystemsRobotics

    Shiley Marcos School of Engineering University of San Diego San Diego, United States of America

  15. A State Based Dispatch Controller for Hospital Delivery Robots with Shared Human and Infrastructure Resources

    Oct 5, 2026Krzysztof Siwek, Aleksandra ŚwietlickaRoboticsHuman-Robot Collaboration

    Faculty of Electrical Engineering Warsaw University of Technology Koszykowa 75, 00-662 Warszawa · Faculty of Control, Robotics and Electrical Engineering Poznań University of Technology Piotrowo 3a, 61-138 Poznan

  16. Synergizing Drone Delivery Order Pooling and Road Network Monitoring through Monitoring-Task Orderization

    Oct 4, 2026Yulong Hu, Meng Xu, Sen Li +1Aerial RoboticsIntelligent Transportation Systems

    Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China · School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland

  17. Real-Time Human-Adaptive Task Allocation for Multi-Human Multi-Robot Supervision

    Oct 1, 2026Seabin Lee, Sujeong Park, Nayoung Kim +3Human-Robot CollaborationMulti-Robot Task Allocation

    Sogang University, Seoul, Korea. 1Dept. of Electronic Engineering. · Sogang University, Seoul, Korea. 2Dept. of Artificial Intelligence.

  18. Communication-Free Distributed Multi-Robot Task Allocation under Partial Observations Using Labeled Multi-Bernoulli Filtering

    Sep 30, 2026Takumi Ito, Akiya KamimuraMulti-Robot CoordinationMulti-Robot Task Allocation

    National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8568, Japan

  19. HALO: Heterogeneous Allocation Via Localized Observations for the Vehicle Routing Problem

    Sep 30, 2026Andrew Meighan, Hyungsub Kim, Or DantskerVehicle RoutingMulti-Robot Coordination

    Department of Intelligent Systems Engineering, Indiana University Bloomington · Department of Computer Science, Indiana University Bloomington

  20. Semantic Map Sharing and Capability-Aware Coverage Planning for AI-Native 6G Robotic Coordination

    Sep 29, 2026Abdulqader Dhafer, Qi Wang, Zhou Daniel HaoMulti-Robot Motion PlanningMulti-Robot Exploration

    School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, University of Leicester, UK · DANiLab, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK

  21. Waggle-Dance-Inspired Multi-UAV Recruitment with RGB and Synthetic Event Vision

    Sep 27, 2026Zhang NengboMulti-Robot SystemsSwarm Robotics

    School of Aerospace Engineering, Engineering Campus Universiti Sains Malaysia, 14300 Nibong Tebal, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia

  22. Theory of Scene: Breaking the Symmetry Trap in Multi-Agent LLM Coordination

    Sep 26, 2026Liangqi Yuan, Wenzhi Fang, Shiqiang Wang +1Multi-Agent CoordinationMulti-Agent Systems

    Purdue University · University of Exeter

  23. Communication-Aware Heterogeneous Graph Learning for Decentralized Multi-Human Multi-Robot Task Allocation

    Sep 26, 2026Ziqin Yuan, Ruiqi Wang, Baijian Yang +1Multi-Robot Task AllocationHuman-Robot Collaboration

    Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA. · Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA.

  24. MORPH: Self-Organising Multi-Robot Task Allocation via Neuroplasticity-Inspired Adaptive Topology

    Sep 26, 2026Xuezhi Niu, Didem Gürdür BrooMulti-Robot Task AllocationMulti-Agent Resource Allocation

    Department of Information Technology, Uppsala University, 751 05 Uppsala, Sweden

  25. WRAP: Fixtureless Wrench-aware Multi-Robot Assembly Planning

    Sep 24, 2026Valentin N. Hartmann, Huang Su, Yijiang Huang +1Multi-Robot Motion PlanningRobot Task Planning

    Computational Robotics Lab, ETH Zurich, CH

  26. MultiPush: Learning to Rearrange with Teams of Car-Like Pushers

    Sep 22, 2026Jeeho Ahn, Christoforos MavrogiannisRobotic Object PushingMulti-Robot Systems

    Robotics Department, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA

  27. FlockDiffusion: Assignment-Conditioned Diffusion for Multi-Drone Task Allocation and Completion

    Sep 20, 2026Iana Zhura, Satenik Akopyan, Roohan Ahmed Khan +3Multi-Robot Motion PlanningAerial Robotics

    Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Moscow, Russia

  28. Geometric Coherence via Weighted Matching for 3D Heterogeneous Multi-Agent Reach-Avoid Games

    Sep 19, 2026Prajwal VijayMulti-Agent SystemsGame Theory

    Dept. of Electrical Engineering, IIT Madras, Chennai, India

  29. AgenticSwarm: Semantic Perception and Adaptive Task Allocation for Heterogeneous Multi-UAV Missions

    Sep 18, 2026Muhammad Ahsan Mustafa, Yasheerah Yaqoot, Faryal Batool +3Robot Task PlanningAerial Robotics

  30. MA-LIPP: Cooperative Multi-Agent Load-Aware Informative Path Planning for Heterogeneous Robot Teams

    Sep 18, 2026Hojune Kim, Guangyao Shi, Gaurav S. SukhatmeMulti-Robot CoordinationMulti-Robot Task Allocation

    School of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Southern California Los Angeles, California · School of Computer Science University of Southern California Los Angeles, California