Residual Denoising Enables Sample-Efficient Multi-Agent Coordination on Demand

arXiv:2609.32129v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Pretrained robot policies offer strong manipulation skills but are typically limited to single-agent settings, where a robot acts in isolation. In this work, we study how to adapt pretrained single-agent diffusion policies to multi-agent settings using minimal collaborative data, co-optimizing for two key objectives: high coordination performance and single-agent skill retention. To this end, we introduce ALTER, an adaptation method for coordination on demand: the adapted policy coordinates with other robots when deployed in a team while remaining capable of acting independently when operating alone. Execution is decentralized: each robot acts only on its own visual observations, without explicit inter-agent communication. Our method trains a coordination head that predicts a residual denoiser to transform single-agent behavior into coordinated multi-agent behavior when necessary while also preserving single-agent capabilities. To preserve single-agent capabilities, we augment a small number of collaborative demonstrations with self-distilled data generated by the base policy during training of the residual denoiser. In simulation,ALTER achieves higher coordination success over our baselines while retaining much higher source-skill retention. In our hardware experiments, we find similar trends where ALTER better co-optimizes for coordination success and single-agent skill retention than the baselines

Abstract:Pretrained robot policies offer strong manipulation skills but are typically limited to single-agent settings, where a robot acts in isolation. In this work, we study how to adapt pretrained single-agent diffusion policies to multi-agent settings using minimal collaborative data, co-optimizing for two key objectives: high coordination performance and single-agent skill retention. To this end, we introduce ALTER, an adaptation method for coordination on demand: the adapted policy coordinates with other robots when deployed in a team while remaining capable of acting independently when operating alone. Execution is decentralized: each robot acts only on its own visual observations, without explicit inter-agent communication. Our method trains a coordination head that predicts a residual denoiser to transform single-agent behavior into coordinated multi-agent behavior when necessary while also preserving single-agent capabilities. To preserve single-agent capabilities, we augment a small number of collaborative demonstrations with self-distilled data generated by the base policy during training of the residual denoiser. In simulation,ALTER achieves higher coordination success over our baselines while retaining much higher source-skill retention. In our hardware experiments, we find similar trends where ALTER better co-optimizes for coordination success and single-agent skill retention than the baselines

Robotics (cs.RO)

arXiv:2609.32129 [cs.RO]

(or arXiv:2609.32129v1 [cs.RO] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2609.32129 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website.

Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them.

Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs.

aiqbench analysis

Residual Denoising Enables Sample-Efficient Multi-Agent Coordination on Demand

Related coverage