# Hierarchical Task Network Planning for Facilitating Cooperative Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.08359 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.08359/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 23 of its 42 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 14 Jun 2023.

## Builds on (most cited first, 23 of 23)

- [Proximal Policy Optimization Algorithms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1707.06347/) (2017)
- [Continuous control with deep reinforcement learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1509.02971/) (2015)
- [Multi-Agent Actor-Critic for Mixed Cooperative-Competitive Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.02275/) (2017)
- [Hindsight Experience Replay](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1707.01495/) (2017)
- [The Surprising Effectiveness of PPO in Cooperative, Multi-Agent Games](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.01955/) (2021)
- [Counterfactual Multi-Agent Policy Gradients](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1705.08926/) (2017)
- [QMIX: Monotonic Value Function Factorisation for Deep Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.11485/) (2018)
- [Value-Decomposition Networks For Cooperative Multi-Agent Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.05296/) (2017)
- [Data-Efficient Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1805.08296/) (2018)
- [QTRAN: Learning to Factorize with Transformation for Cooperative Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.05408/) (2019)
- [Learning Multiagent Communication with Backpropagation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1605.07736/) (2016)
- [Hierarchical Deep Reinforcement Learning: Integrating Temporal Abstraction and Intrinsic Motivation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1604.06057/) (2016)
- [MAVEN: Multi-Agent Variational Exploration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.07483/) (2019)
- [A Review of Cooperative Multi-Agent Deep Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.03963/) (2019)
- [Multi-Agent Game Abstraction via Graph Attention Neural Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.10715/) (2019)
- [SDRL: Interpretable and Data-efficient Deep Reinforcement Learning Leveraging Symbolic Planning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1811.00090/) (2018)
- [Generating Adjacency-Constrained Subgoals in Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.11485/) (2020)
- [PEORL: Integrating Symbolic Planning and Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning for Robust Decision-Making](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.07779/) (2018)
- [Hierarchical Cooperative Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning with Skill Discovery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.03558/) (2019)
- [From Few to More: Large-scale Dynamic Multiagent Curriculum Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.02790/) (2019)
- [MASER: Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning with Subgoals Generated from Experience Replay Buffer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.10607/) (2022)
- [Managing engineering systems with large state and action spaces through deep reinforcement learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1811.02052/) (2018)
- [Discovering Underlying Plans Based on Shallow Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.02208/) (2018)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Autonomous Agents on Blockchains: Standards, Execution Models, and Trust Boundaries](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.04583/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Exploring sparse reward multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) environments with traps in a collaborative manner is a complex task. Agents typically fail to reach the goal state and fall into traps, which affects the overall performance of the system. To overcome this issue, we present SOMARL, a framework that uses prior knowledge to reduce the exploration space and assist learning. In SOMARL, agents are treated as part of the MARL environment, and symbolic knowledge is embedded using a tree structure to build a knowledge hierarchy. The framework has a two-layer hierarchical structure, comprising a hybrid module with a Hierarchical Task Network (HTN) planning and meta-controller at the higher level, and a MARL-based interactive module at the lower level. The HTN module and meta-controller use Hierarchical Domain Definition Language (HDDL) and the option framework to formalize symbolic knowledge and obtain domain knowledge and a symbolic option set, respectively. Moreover, the HTN module leverages domain knowledge to guide low-level agent exploration by assisting the meta-controller in selecting symbolic options. The meta-controller further computes intrinsic rewards of symbolic options to limit exploration behavior and adjust HTN planning solutions as needed. We evaluate SOMARL on two benchmarks, FindTreasure and MoveBox, and report superior performance over state-of-the-art MARL and subgoal-based baselines for MARL environments significantly.