让预测模型像人一样思考:通过反复推理和工具调用提升时间序列预测能力。
Cast-R1: Learning Tool-Augmented Sequential Decision Policies for Time Series Forecasting
- 将预测任务转化为逐步决策过程,用记忆机制积累上下文信息。
- 在真实数据集上实现更精准的长期预测,优于传统单次映射模型。
- 适合对可解释性、动态调整有要求的工业预测场景。
时间序列预测长期依赖以模型为中心的方法,将预测视为从历史观测到未来值的单次映射。尽管近期取得进展,这类方法在复杂多变环境中仍表现不佳,主要因为多数模型缺乏自主获取有效证据、推理潜在变化或通过迭代过程修正预测的能力。本文提出 Cast-R1,一个将预测重构为顺序决策问题的学习框架。Cast-R1 引入基于记忆的状态管理机制,在交互步骤间保持决策相关的信息,支持长期推理。在此基础上,预测通过工具增强的智能体工作流完成:智能体自主调用模块化工具提取统计特征、调用轻量级模型提供决策支持、进行基于推理的预测,并通过自我反思迭代优化结果。训练采用两阶段策略,结合监督微调与多轮强化学习,辅以渐进式难度课程学习以提升策略学习效果。在多个真实世界时间序列数据集上的实验表明了 Cast-R1 的有效性。我们希望本工作为时间序列建模中智能体范式的进一步探索提供实践路径。代码已开源:https://github.com/Xiaoyu-Tao/Cast-R1-TS。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Time series forecasting has long been dominated by model-centric approaches that formulate prediction as a single-pass mapping from historical observations to future values. Despite recent progress, such formulations often struggle in complex and evolving settings, largely because most forecasting models lack the ability to autonomously acquire informative evidence, reason about potential future changes, or revise predictions through iterative decision processes. In this work, we propose Cast-R1, a learned time series forecasting framework that reformulates forecasting as a sequential decision-making problem. Cast-R1 introduces a memory-based state management mechanism that maintains decision-relevant information across interaction steps, enabling the accumulation of contextual evidence to support long-horizon reasoning. Building on this formulation, forecasting is carried out through a tool-augmented agentic workflow, in which the agent autonomously interacts with a modular toolkit to extract statistical features, invoke lightweight forecasting models for decision support, perform reasoning-based prediction, and iteratively refine forecasts through self-reflection. To train Cast-R1, we adopt a two-stage learning strategy that combines supervised fine-tuning with multi-turn reinforcement learning, together with a curriculum learning scheme that progressively increases task difficulty to improve policy learning. Extensive experiments on multiple real-world time series datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of Cast-R1. We hope this work provides a practical step towards further exploration of agentic paradigms for time series modeling. Our code is available at https://github.com/Xiaoyu-Tao/Cast-R1-TS.
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