CaPo: Cooperative Plan Optimization for Efficient Embodied Multi-Agent Cooperation
On the map: LLM agents and tool use → General LLM agent frameworks and benchmarks
Abstract (arXiv)
In this work, we address the cooperation problem among large language model (LLM) based embodied agents, where agents must cooperate to achieve a common goal. Previous methods often execute actions extemporaneously and incoherently, without long-term strategic and cooperative planning, leading to redundant steps, failures, and even serious repercussions in complex tasks like search-and-rescue missions where discussion and cooperative plan are crucial. To solve this issue, we propose Cooperative Plan Optimization (CaPo) to enhance the cooperation efficiency of LLM-based embodied agents. Inspired by human cooperation schemes, CaPo improves cooperation efficiency with two phases: 1) meta-plan generation, and 2) progress-adaptive meta-plan and execution. In the first phase, all agents analyze the task, discuss, and cooperatively create a meta-plan that decomposes the task into subtasks with detailed steps, ensuring a long-term strategic and coherent plan for efficient coordination. In the second phase, agents execute tasks according to the meta-plan and dynamically adjust it based on their latest progress (e.g., discovering a target object) through multi-turn discussions. This progress-based adaptation eliminates redundant actions, improving the overall cooperation efficiency of agents. Experimental results on the ThreeDworld Multi-Agent Transport and Communicative Watch-And-Help tasks demonstrate that CaPo achieves much higher task completion rate and efficiency compared with state-of-the-arts.The code is released at https://github.com/jliu4ai/CaPo.
Key facts. Cited by 12 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in General LLM agent frameworks and benchmarks, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use. Builds on 44 of its 55 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 7 Nov 2024.
Builds on
44 of 55 references.
Closest ancestors · 9
Same direction, newest first
- 2024Embodied LLM Agents Learn to Cooperate in Organized Teams19 Mar
- 2023Theory of Mind for Multi-Agent Collaboration via Large Language Models16 Oct
- 2023A Survey on Large Language Model based Autonomous Agents22 Aug
- 2023ProAgent: Building Proactive Cooperative Agents with Large Language Models22 Aug
- 2023AgentBench: Evaluating LLMs as Agents7 Aug
- 2023MetaGPT: Meta Programming for A Multi-Agent Collaborative Framework1 Aug
- 2023Unleashing the Emergent Cognitive Synergy in Large Language Models: A Task-Solving Agent through Multi-Persona Self-Collaboration11 Jul
- 2023Building Cooperative Embodied Agents Modularly with Large Language Models5 Jul
- 2023Describe, Explain, Plan and Select: Interactive Planning with Large Language Models Enables Open-World Multi-Task Agents3 Feb
Other references · 35
- 2023Llama 2: Open Foundation and Fine-Tuned Chat Modelscited by 12,865
- 2022Chain-of-Thought Prompting Elicits Reasoning in Large Language Modelscited by 12,302
- 2017Mask R-CNNcited by 7,259
- 2022Self-Consistency Improves Chain of Thought Reasoning in Language Modelscited by 5,601
- 2022Large Language Models are Zero-Shot Reasonerscited by 4,323
- 2023Self-Refine: Iterative Refinement with Self-Feedbackcited by 3,317
- 2023Voyager: An Open-Ended Embodied Agent with Large Language Modelscited by 2,081
- 2022Least-to-Most Prompting Enables Complex Reasoning in Large Language Modelscited by 1,397
- 2023HuggingGPT: Solving AI Tasks with ChatGPT and its Friends in Hugging Facecited by 1,173
- 2022Inner Monologue: Embodied Reasoning through Planning with Language Modelscited by 1,057
- 2022Language Models as Zero-Shot Planners: Extracting Actionable Knowledge for Embodied Agentscited by 1,029
- 2023Reasoning with Language Model is Planning with World Modelcited by 846
23 more
- 2023Large Language Models as Optimizerscited by 830
- 2019ALFRED: A Benchmark for Interpreting Grounded Instructions for Everyday Taskscited by 773
- 2022LLM-Planner: Few-Shot Grounded Planning for Embodied Agents with Large Language Modelscited by 459
- 2018Quantifying Generalization in Reinforcement Learningcited by 345
- 2023Ghost in the Minecraft: Generally Capable Agents for Open-World Environments via Large Language Models with Text-based Knowledge and Memorycited by 288
- 2023NavGPT: Explicit Reasoning in Vision-and-Language Navigation with Large Language Modelscited by 274
- 2020ThreeDWorld: A Platform for Interactive Multi-Modal Physical Simulationcited by 249
- 2013The Complexity of Decentralized Control of Markov Decision Processescited by 225
- 2021TEACh: Task-driven Embodied Agents that Chatcited by 194
- 2023Guiding Pretraining in Reinforcement Learning with Large Language Modelscited by 185
- 2023RoCo: Dialectic Multi-Robot Collaboration with Large Language Modelscited by 171
- 2018Learning Attentional Communication for Multi-Agent Cooperationcited by 170
- 2020Rearrangement: A Challenge for Embodied AIcited by 153
- 2020Watch-And-Help: A Challenge for Social Perception and Human-AI Collaborationcited by 131
- 2024Improving Text-to-Image Consistency via Automatic Prompt Optimizationcited by 88
- 2023MindAgent: Emergent Gaming Interactioncited by 87
- 2023Embodied Task Planning with Large Language Modelscited by 84
- 2021The ThreeDWorld Transport Challenge: A Visually Guided Task-and-Motion Planning Benchmark for Physically Realistic Embodied AIcited by 64
- 2021Cooperative Exploration for Multi-Agent Deep Reinforcement Learningcited by 57
- 2021ToM2C: Target-oriented Multi-agent Communication and Cooperation with Theory of Mindcited by 57
- 2023GROOT: Learning to Follow Instructions by Watching Gameplay Videoscited by 42
- 2023Plan, Eliminate, and Track -- Language Models are Good Teachers for Embodied Agentscited by 32
- 2024VisLingInstruct: Elevating Zero-Shot Learning in Multi-Modal Language Models with Autonomous Instruction Optimizationcited by 16
Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2025: 6; 2026: 6.
12 papers.
- 2026A Survey of Agentic Reasoning for Large Language Models: Towards Recursively Self-Improving and Collective Agentscited by 47
- 2025Heterogeneous Swarms: Jointly Optimizing Model Roles and Weights for Multi-LLM Systemscited by 22
- 2025Generative Multi-Agent Collaboration in Embodied AI: A Systematic Reviewcited by 13
- 2025Communication-Efficient Desire Alignment for Embodied Agent-Human Adaptationcited by 4
- 2025Nature's Insight: A Novel Framework and Comprehensive Analysis of Agentic Reasoning Through the Lens of Neurosciencecited by 3
- 2025ELHPlan: Efficient Long-Horizon Task Planning for Multi-Agent Collaborationcited by 3
- 2026From Assumptions to Actions: Turning LLM Reasoning into Uncertainty-Aware Planning for Embodied Agentscited by 3
- 2026Think Twice, Act Once: Verifier-Guided Action Selection For Embodied Agentscited by 3
- 2025Transforming Monolithic Foundation Models into Embodied Multi-Agent Architectures for Human-Robot Collaborationcited by 0
- 2026Sentinel: Embodied Cooperative Spatial Reasoning and Planningcited by 0
- 2026UniETP: Unifying Environments for Generalizable Embodied Task Planningcited by 0
- 2026AeroWeaver: An Embodied-Agent Harness for Weaving Aerial Skills into Distributed, Adaptive Swarm Executioncited by 0
- 2026AeroWeaver: An Embodied-Agent Harness for Weaving Aerial Skills into Distributed, Adaptive Swarm Execution16 Sep 2026
- 2026UniETP: Unifying Environments for Generalizable Embodied Task Planning20 Jul 2026
- 2026Sentinel: Embodied Cooperative Spatial Reasoning and Planning25 May 2026
- 2026Think Twice, Act Once: Verifier-Guided Action Selection For Embodied Agents12 May 2026
- 2026From Assumptions to Actions: Turning LLM Reasoning into Uncertainty-Aware Planning for Embodied Agents4 Feb 2026
- 2026A Survey of Agentic Reasoning for Large Language Models: Towards Recursively Self-Improving and Collective Agents18 Jan 2026
- 2025Transforming Monolithic Foundation Models into Embodied Multi-Agent Architectures for Human-Robot Collaboration30 Nov 2025
- 2025ELHPlan: Efficient Long-Horizon Task Planning for Multi-Agent Collaboration29 Sep 2025
- 2025Communication-Efficient Desire Alignment for Embodied Agent-Human Adaptation28 May 2025
- 2025Nature's Insight: A Novel Framework and Comprehensive Analysis of Agentic Reasoning Through the Lens of Neuroscience7 May 2025
- 2025Generative Multi-Agent Collaboration in Embodied AI: A Systematic Review17 Feb 2025
- 2025Heterogeneous Swarms: Jointly Optimizing Model Roles and Weights for Multi-LLM Systems6 Feb 2025
Similar, not cited
Close in wording, no citation either way
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- 2026COOP2: Defining, Observing, and Repairing Cooperation in LLM Multi-Agent Systems
- 2025Collaborating Action by Action: A Multi-agent LLM Framework for Embodied Reasoning
- 2025Tool-RoCo: An Agent-as-Tool Self-organization Large Language Model Benchmark in Multi-robot Cooperation
- 2025Improving Cooperation in Collaborative Embodied AI
- 2025Can LLM Agents Solve Collaborative Tasks? A Study on Urgency-Aware Planning and Coordination
- 2026MiTa: A Hierarchical Multi-Agent Collaboration Framework with Memory-integrated and Task Allocation