arXiv:2512.11179cs.LGcs.MA2025-12中稿 · AAMAS 2026被引 9

在带宽受限下优化多智能体通信,提升协作效率

Bandwidth-constrained Variational Message Encoding for Cooperative Multi-agent Reinforcement Learning

  • 用变分消息编码实现可调控的压缩,控制信息传输强度
  • 在多个基准上减少70%以上消息维度,性能不降反升
  • 适合资源受限场景,尤其对稀疏通信图效果显著

基于图的多智能体强化学习通过将智能体建模为节点、通信链路为边,在部分可观测环境下实现协同行为。尽管近期方法能学习稀疏协调图(决定谁与谁通信),但未解决在严格带宽约束下应传输何种信息的问题。我们研究此带宽受限情形,发现简单的维度缩减会持续损害协作性能。硬性带宽约束迫使选择性编码,但确定性投影缺乏控制压缩方式的机制。我们提出带宽约束变分消息编码(BVME),将消息视为从学习到的高斯后验中采样,通过KL散度正则化至无信息先验。其变分框架通过可解释超参数提供原则性且可调的压缩强度控制,直接约束决策所用表示。在SMACv1、SMACv2和MPE基准上,BVME在使用67%-83%更少消息维度的同时,达到相当或更优性能,尤其在稀疏图上收益最大。消融实验显示对带宽呈U形敏感,BVME在极端比率下表现优异,且开销极小。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Graph-based multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) enables coordinated behavior under partial observability by modeling agents as nodes and communication links as edges. While recent methods excel at learning sparse coordination graphs-determining who communicates with whom-they do not address what information should be transmitted under hard bandwidth constraints. We study this bandwidth-limited regime and show that naive dimensionality reduction consistently degrades coordination performance. Hard bandwidth constraints force selective encoding, but deterministic projections lack mechanisms to control how compression occurs. We introduce Bandwidth-constrained Variational Message Encoding (BVME), a lightweight module that treats messages as samples from learned Gaussian posteriors regularized via KL divergence to an uninformative prior. BVME's variational framework provides principled, tunable control over compression strength through interpretable hyperparameters, directly constraining the representations used for decision-making. Across SMACv1, SMACv2, and MPE benchmarks, BVME achieves comparable or superior performance while using 67--83% fewer message dimensions, with gains most pronounced on sparse graphs where message quality critically impacts coordination. Ablations reveal U-shaped sensitivity to bandwidth, with BVME excelling at extreme ratios while adding minimal overhead.

多智能体强化学习通信优化带宽约束

Thank you to arXiv for use of its open access interoperability. PaperDance 不是 arXiv 官方产品;中文卡片由大模型生成,请以原文为准。