mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

ToM2C: Target-oriented Multi-agent Communication and Cooperation with Theory of Mind

arXiv 2111.09189 ↗First posted 15 Oct 2021cs.MA cs.AI cs.LGcited by 57

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Abstract (arXiv)

Being able to predict the mental states of others is a key factor to effective social interaction. It is also crucial for distributed multi-agent systems, where agents are required to communicate and cooperate. In this paper, we introduce such an important social-cognitive skill, i.e. Theory of Mind (ToM), to build socially intelligent agents who are able to communicate and cooperate effectively to accomplish challenging tasks. With ToM, each agent is capable of inferring the mental states and intentions of others according to its (local) observation. Based on the inferred states, the agents decide "when" and with "whom" to share their intentions. With the information observed, inferred, and received, the agents decide their sub-goals and reach a consensus among the team. In the end, the low-level executors independently take primitive actions to accomplish the sub-goals. We demonstrate the idea in two typical target-oriented multi-agent tasks: cooperative navigation and multi-sensor target coverage. The experiments show that the proposed model not only outperforms the state-of-the-art methods on reward and communication efficiency, but also shows good generalization across different scales of the environment.

Key facts. Cited by 57 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 38 of its 50 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 15 Oct 2021.

Builds on

38 of 50 references.

References · 38

  1. 2017Attention Is All You Needcited by 59,932
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  11. 2019The StarCraft Multi-Agent Challengecited by 589
  12. 2016Interaction Networks for Learning about Objects, Relations and Physicscited by 503
26 more
  1. 2017Value-Decomposition Networks For Cooperative Multi-Agent Learningcited by 490
  2. 2020Monotonic Value Function Factorisation for Deep Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learningcited by 475
  3. 2016Learning Multiagent Communication with Backpropagationcited by 355
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  5. 2018Actor-Attention-Critic for Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learningcited by 259
  6. 2013The Complexity of Decentralized Control of Markov Decision Processescited by 225
  7. 2018Machine Theory of Mindcited by 222
  8. 2018TarMAC: Targeted Multi-Agent Communicationcited by 201
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  15. 2020Learning Individually Inferred Communication for Multi-Agent Cooperationcited by 55
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  19. 2021Baby Intuitions Benchmark (BIB): Discerning the goals, preferences, and actions of otherscited by 39
  20. 2019Theory of Minds: Understanding Behavior in Groups Through Inverse Planningcited by 30
  21. 2021Towards Distraction-Robust Active Visual Trackingcited by 30
  22. 2021PHASE: PHysically-grounded Abstract Social Events for Machine Social Perceptioncited by 22
  23. 2020Learning Multi-Agent Coordination for Enhancing Target Coverage in Directional Sensor Networkscited by 19
  24. 2020Pose-Assisted Multi-Camera Collaboration for Active Object Trackingcited by 16
  25. 2020Improving Multi-Agent Cooperation using Theory of Mindcited by 7
  26. 2019Learning Hierarchical Teaching Policies for Cooperative Agentscited by 3

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Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2022: 6; 2023: 14; 2024: 19; 2025: 8; 2026: 10.

57 papers.

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  1. 2023Building Cooperative Embodied Agents Modularly with Large Language Modelscited by 231
  2. 2022Neural Theory-of-Mind? On the Limits of Social Intelligence in Large LMscited by 220
  3. 2023ProAgent: Building Proactive Cooperative Agents with Large Language Modelscited by 97
  4. 2023Minding Language Models' (Lack of) Theory of Mind: A Plug-and-Play Multi-Character Belief Trackercited by 95
  5. 2024Knowledge Mechanisms in Large Language Models: A Survey and Perspectivecited by 50
  6. 2022Towards a Standardised Performance Evaluation Protocol for Cooperative MARLcited by 48
  7. 2024Learning Multi-Agent Communication from Graph Modeling Perspectivecited by 47
  8. 2024Richelieu: Self-Evolving LLM-Based Agents for AI Diplomacycited by 36
  9. 2024Language Models Represent Beliefs of Self and Otherscited by 29
  10. 2024UnrealZoo: Enriching Photo-realistic Virtual Worlds for Embodied AIcited by 25
  11. 2023Theory of Mind as Intrinsic Motivation for Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learningcited by 19
  12. 2023RSPT: Reconstruct Surroundings and Predict Trajectories for Generalizable Active Object Trackingcited by 16
38 more
  1. 2022TarGF: Learning Target Gradient Field to Rearrange Objects without Explicit Goal Specificationcited by 13
  2. 2023Proactive Multi-Camera Collaboration For 3D Human Pose Estimationcited by 13
  3. 2026StackPlanner: A Centralized Hierarchical Multi-Agent System with Task-Experience Memory Managementcited by 13
  4. 2024CaPo: Cooperative Plan Optimization for Efficient Embodied Multi-Agent Cooperationcited by 12
  5. 2025MetaMind: Modeling Human Social Thoughts with Metacognitive Multi-Agent Systemscited by 12
  6. 2022Stateful active facilitator: Coordination and Environmental Heterogeneity in Cooperative Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learningcited by 10
  7. 2022Coordinate-Aligned Multi-Camera Collaboration for Active Multi-Object Trackingcited by 7
  8. 2024Fast Peer Adaptation with Context-aware Explorationcited by 7
  9. 2025Exponential Topology-enabled Scalable Communication in Multi-agent Reinforcement Learningcited by 7
  10. 2023Communication-Robust Multi-Agent Learning by Adaptable Auxiliary Multi-Agent Adversary Generationcited by 6
  11. 2023Heterogeneous Embodied Multi-Agent Collaborationcited by 6
  12. 2024Multi-Agent Inverse Reinforcement Learning in Real World Unstructured Pedestrian Crowdscited by 6
  13. 2024Explicit Modelling of Theory of Mind for Belief Prediction in Nonverbal Social Interactionscited by 6
  14. 2023iPLAN: Intent-Aware Planning in Heterogeneous Traffic via Distributed Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learningcited by 5
  15. 2025Decentralized Collective World Model for Emergent Communication and Coordinationcited by 5
  16. 2025A Review of Incorporating Psychological Theories in LLMscited by 5
  17. 2026TodyComm: Task-Oriented Dynamic Communication for Multi-Round LLM-based Multi-Agent Systemcited by 5
  18. 2023Mixture of personality improved Spiking actor network for efficient multi-agent cooperationcited by 4
  19. 2024Episodic Future Thinking Mechanism for Multi-agent Reinforcement Learningcited by 4
  20. 2025Communication-Efficient Desire Alignment for Embodied Agent-Human Adaptationcited by 4
  21. 2023Robust Multi-agent Communication via Multi-view Message Certificationcited by 3
  22. 2024Inverse Attention Agents for Multi-Agent Systemscited by 3
  23. 2026MetaMind: General and Cognitive World Models in Multi-Agent Systems by Meta-Theory of Mindcited by 3
  24. 2026Adaptive Theory of Mind for LLM-based Multi-Agent Coordinationcited by 3
  25. 2024SocialGFs: Learning Social Gradient Fields for Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learningcited by 2
  26. 2025Decentralized Consensus Inference-based Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning for Multi-Constrained UAV Pursuit-Evasion Gamecited by 2
  27. 2023Decentralized Adaptive Formation via Consensus-Oriented Multi-Agent Communicationcited by 1
  28. 2024Machine Theory of Mind for Autonomous Cyber-Defencecited by 1
  29. 2025Unifying Agent Interaction and World Information for Multi-agent Coordinationcited by 1
  30. 2022Coordinating Policies Among Multiple Agents via an Intelligent Communication Channelcited by 0
  31. 2023Low Entropy Communication in Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learningcited by 0
  32. 2023Characterizing Speed Performance of Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learningcited by 0
  33. 2024Reducing Redundant Computation in Multi-Agent Coordination through Locally Centralized Executioncited by 0
  34. 2024Cognitive Insights and Stable Coalition Matching for Fostering Multi-Agent Cooperationcited by 0
  35. 2024DCMAC: Demand-aware Customized Multi-Agent Communication via Upper Bound Trainingcited by 0
  36. 2024Autonomous Vehicle Decision-Making Framework for Considering Malicious Behavior at Unsignalized Intersectionscited by 0
  37. 2024Building Altruistic and Moral AI Agent with Brain-inspired Emotional Empathy Mechanismscited by 0
  38. 2024Communication Learning in Multi-Agent Systems from Graph Modeling Perspectivecited by 0

50 most cited of 57 All 57 (JSON)