mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

An Intelligent Agentic System for Complex Image Restoration Problems

arXiv 2410.17809 ↗First posted 23 Oct 2024cs.CVcited by 41

On the map: LLM agents and tool use → Multimodal and embodied agents

Abstract (arXiv)

Real-world image restoration (IR) is inherently complex and often requires combining multiple specialized models to address diverse degradations. Inspired by human problem-solving, we propose AgenticIR, an agentic system that mimics the human approach to image processing by following five key stages: Perception, Scheduling, Execution, Reflection, and Rescheduling. AgenticIR leverages large language models (LLMs) and vision-language models (VLMs) that interact via text generation to dynamically operate a toolbox of IR models. We fine-tune VLMs for image quality analysis and employ LLMs for reasoning, guiding the system step by step. To compensate for LLMs' lack of specific IR knowledge and experience, we introduce a self-exploration method, allowing the LLM to observe and summarize restoration results into referenceable documents. Experiments demonstrate AgenticIR's potential in handling complex IR tasks, representing a promising path toward achieving general intelligence in visual processing.

Key facts. Cited by 41 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Multimodal and embodied agents, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use. Builds on 70 of its 84 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 23 Oct 2024.

Builds on

70 of 84 references.

Closest ancestors · 1

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2024RestoreAgent: Autonomous Image Restoration Agent via Multimodal Large Language Models25 Jul

Other references · 69

  1. 2021LoRA: Low-Rank Adaptation of Large Language Modelscited by 14,084
  2. 2022Chain-of-Thought Prompting Elicits Reasoning in Large Language Modelscited by 12,302
  3. 2018The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Deep Features as a Perceptual Metriccited by 11,029
  4. 2023Visual Instruction Tuningcited by 7,792
  5. 2023Reflexion: Language Agents with Verbal Reinforcement Learningcited by 4,064
  6. 2023Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behaviorcited by 3,500
  7. 2023Tree of Thoughts: Deliberate Problem Solving with Large Language Modelscited by 3,155
  8. 2023A Survey on Large Language Model based Autonomous Agentscited by 2,203
  9. 2016Photo-Realistic Single Image Super-Resolution Using a Generative Adversarial Networkcited by 1,898
  10. 2021SwinIR: Image Restoration Using Swin Transformercited by 1,869
  11. 2021Restormer: Efficient Transformer for High-Resolution Image Restorationcited by 1,618
  12. 2023The Rise and Potential of Large Language Model Based Agents: A Surveycited by 1,422
38 more
  1. 2016Beyond a Gaussian Denoiser: Residual Learning of Deep CNN for Image Denoisingcited by 1,352
  2. 2014Image Super-Resolution Using Deep Convolutional Networkscited by 1,218
  3. 2023HuggingGPT: Solving AI Tasks with ChatGPT and its Friends in Hugging Facecited by 1,173
  4. 2023Instruction-Following Evaluation for Large Language Modelscited by 1,143
  5. 2021MUSIQ: Multi-scale Image Quality Transformercited by 1,058
  6. 2022Exploring CLIP for Assessing the Look and Feel of Imagescited by 974
  7. 2021Real-ESRGAN: Training Real-World Blind Super-Resolution with Pure Synthetic Datacited by 961
  8. 2023Graph of Thoughts: Solving Elaborate Problems with Large Language Modelscited by 873
  9. 2021Multi-Stage Progressive Image Restorationcited by 813
  10. 2016Deep Multi-scale Convolutional Neural Network for Dynamic Scene Deblurringcited by 722
  11. 2018Deep Retinex Decomposition for Low-Light Enhancementcited by 720
  12. 2024A Survey on Large Language Models for Code Generationcited by 646
  13. 2021Designing a Practical Degradation Model for Deep Blind Image Super-Resolutioncited by 524
  14. 2022MANIQA: Multi-dimension Attention Network for No-Reference Image Quality Assessmentcited by 514
  15. 2023Q-Align: Teaching LMMs for Visual Scoring via Discrete Text-Defined Levelscited by 489
  16. 2017Benchmarking Single Image Dehazing and Beyondcited by 445
  17. 2022Activating More Pixels in Image Super-Resolution Transformercited by 433
  18. 2023Cognitive Architectures for Language Agentscited by 422
  19. 2019Learning agile and dynamic motor skills for legged robotscited by 402
  20. 2019Benchmarking Robustness in Object Detection: Autonomous Driving when Winter is Comingcited by 332
  21. 2022MAXIM: Multi-Axis MLP for Image Processingcited by 301
  22. 2023Ghost in the Minecraft: Generally Capable Agents for Open-World Environments via Large Language Models with Text-based Knowledge and Memorycited by 288
  23. 2024Scaling Up to Excellence: Practicing Model Scaling for Photo-Realistic Image Restoration In the Wildcited by 281
  24. 2022Vision Transformers for Single Image Dehazingcited by 255
  25. 2023DiffBIR: Towards Blind Image Restoration with Generative Diffusion Priorcited by 255
  26. 2023Multimodal Foundation Models: From Specialists to General-Purpose Assistantscited by 247
  27. 2023Q-Bench: A Benchmark for General-Purpose Foundation Models on Low-level Visioncited by 247
  28. 2021TransWeather: Transformer-based Restoration of Images Degraded by Adverse Weather Conditionscited by 243
  29. 2019Blind Super-Resolution With Iterative Kernel Correctioncited by 203
  30. 2023LAMM: Language-Assisted Multi-Modal Instruction-Tuning Dataset, Framework, and Benchmarkcited by 169
  31. 2023Q-Instruct: Improving Low-level Visual Abilities for Multi-modality Foundation Modelscited by 152
  32. 2024InstructIR: High-Quality Image Restoration Following Human Instructionscited by 139
  33. 2016Clearing the Skies: A deep network architecture for single-image rain removalcited by 136
  34. 2023Chatlaw: A Multi-Agent Legal Assistant based on a Role-Aligned Mixture-of-Experts Architecturecited by 119
  35. 2023Controlling Vision-Language Models for Multi-Task Image Restorationcited by 108
  36. 2023Depicting Beyond Scores: Advancing Image Quality Assessment through Multi-modal Language Modelscited by 104
  37. 2023AutoDIR: Automatic All-in-One Image Restoration with Latent Diffusioncited by 98
  38. 2023Hierarchical Integration Diffusion Model for Realistic Image Deblurringcited by 87

50 most cited of 69 All 69 (JSON)

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2025: 21; 2026: 20.

41 papers.

Sort:

By area:

  1. 2025Teaching Large Language Models to Regress Accurate Image Quality Scores using Score Distributioncited by 139
  2. 2025Q-Insight: Understanding Image Quality via Visual Reinforcement Learningcited by 93
  3. 2025JarvisIR: Elevating Autonomous Driving Perception with Intelligent Image Restorationcited by 32
  4. 2025Multi-Agent Image Restorationcited by 19
  5. 2026Agent Banana: High-Fidelity Image Editing with Agentic Thinking and Toolingcited by 17
  6. 2025Hybrid Agents for Image Restorationcited by 14
  7. 2025Q-Ponder: A Unified Training Pipeline for Reasoning-based Visual Quality Assessmentcited by 14
  8. 2025MoA-VR: A Mixture-of-Agents System Towards All-in-One Video Restorationcited by 12
  9. 2025PhotoArtAgent: Intelligent Photo Retouching with Language Model-Based Artist Agentscited by 9
  10. 2025FoundIR-v2: Optimizing Pre-Training Data Mixtures for Image Restoration Foundation Modelcited by 9
  11. 2026Agentic Retoucher for Text-To-Image Generationcited by 7
  12. 2025Revisiting the Generalization Problem of Low-level Vision Models Through the Lens of Image Derainingcited by 4
29 more
  1. 2025Preacher: Paper-to-Video Agentic Systemcited by 4
  2. 2025Code-in-the-Loop Forensics: Agentic Tool Use for Image Forgery Detectioncited by 4
  3. 2025Vision-Language Model Guided Image Restorationcited by 4
  4. 2025Restore-R1: Efficient Image Restoration Agents via Reinforcement Learning with Multimodal LLM Perceptual Feedbackcited by 4
  5. 2026GlyphBanana: Advancing Precise Text Rendering Through Agentic Workflowscited by 4
  6. 2025Position: Agentic Systems Constitute a Key Component of Next-Generation Intelligent Image Processingcited by 3
  7. 2025PhyDAE: Physics-Guided Degradation-Adaptive Experts for All-in-One Remote Sensing Image Restorationcited by 3
  8. 2026TPGDiff: Hierarchical Triple-Prior Guided Diffusion for Image Restorationcited by 3
  9. 2026TIR-Agent: Training an Explorative and Efficient Agent for Image Restorationcited by 3
  10. 2026Self-Evolving Agentic Image Restoration via Deliberate Planning and Intuitive Executioncited by 3
  11. 2025AgenticIQA: An Agentic Framework for Adaptive and Interpretable Image Quality Assessmentcited by 2
  12. 2025Real-World Adverse Weather Image Restoration via Dual-Level Reinforcement Learning with High-Quality Cold Startcited by 2
  13. 2026PaAgent: Portrait-Aware Image Restoration Agent via Subjective-Objective Reinforcement Learningcited by 2
  14. 2026Restore, Assess, Repeat: A Unified Framework for Iterative Image Restorationcited by 2
  15. 2026OPERA: An Agent for Image Restoration with End-to-End Joint Planning-Execution Optimizationcited by 2
  16. 2025Clear Roads, Clear Vision: Advancements in Multi-Weather Restoration for Smart Transportationcited by 1
  17. 2026EpiAgent: An Agent-Centric System for Ancient Inscription Restorationcited by 1
  18. 2026EditRefiner: A Human-Aligned Agentic Framework for Image Editing Refinementcited by 1
  19. 2025Unleashing Degradation-Carrying Features in Symmetric U-Net: Simpler and Stronger Baselines for All-in-One Image Restorationcited by 0
  20. 2025Multi-Grained Text-Guided Image Fusion for Multi-Exposure and Multi-Focus Scenarioscited by 0
  21. 2026Derain-Agent: A Plug-and-Play Agent Framework for Rainy Image Restorationcited by 0
  22. 2026VQ-Jarvis: Retrieval-Augmented Video Restoration Agent with Sharp Vision and Fast Thoughtcited by 0
  23. 2026Q-DeepSight: Incentivizing Thinking with Images for Image Quality Assessment and Refinementcited by 0
  24. 2026Leveraging Multimodal Large Language Models for All-in-One Image Restoration via a Mixture of Frequency Expertscited by 0
  25. 2026Hierarchical Image Tokenization for Multi-Scale Image Super Resolutioncited by 0
  26. 2026EvoIR-Agent: Self-Evolving Image Restoration Agentic System via Experience-Driven Learningcited by 0
  27. 2026DiTTo: Scalable Order-aware All-in-One Image Restoration Agentcited by 0
  28. 2026DVANet: Degradation-aware Visual-prior Alignment Network for Image Restorationcited by 0
  29. 2026FRAMEWORKERS: A Dynamic Multi-Agent Framework for AI-Generated Video Productioncited by 0

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2026HarnessIR: Harnessing Multimodal Foundation Models for Universal Real-World Image Restoration
  2. 2026Causal-AgentIR: Self-Evolving Causal Memory for Adaptive Image Restoration Agents
  3. 2026SkillIR: Evolving Scene-Aware Skills for Agentic Image Restoration
  4. 2026Does AI Understand Imaging? A Systematic Benchmark of Agentic AI for Computational Imaging Tasks
  5. 2026OCR-Agent: Agentic OCR with Capability and Memory Reflection
  6. 2026RIRF: Reasoning Image Restoration Framework
  7. 2024LossAgent: Towards Any Optimization Objectives for Image Processing with LLM Agents
  8. 2024Complexity Experts are Task-Discriminative Learners for Any Image Restoration