# DART-LLM: Dependency-Aware Multi-Robot Task Decomposition and Execution using Large Language Models

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.09022 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.09022/

## Key facts

- Cited by 19 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Spatial and embodied reasoning, one of 17 directions in LLM reasoning.
- First posted on arXiv 13 Nov 2024.

## Placed in

- LLM reasoning / [Spatial and embodied reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/lr/spatial-and-embodied-reasoning/)

## Built on by (most cited first, 19 of 19)

- [Multi-agent Embodied AI: Advances and Future Directions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.05108/) (2025)
- [Large Language Models for Multi-Robot Systems: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.03814/) (2025)
- [VIKI-R: Coordinating Embodied Multi-Agent Cooperation via Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.09049/) (2025)
- [BuildArena: A Physics-Aligned Interactive Benchmark of LLMs for Engineering Construction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.16559/) (2025)
- [Incentivizing Multimodal Reasoning in Large Models for Direct Robot Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.12744/) (2025)
- [Think Twice, Act Once: A Co-Evolution Framework of LLM and RL for Large-Scale Decision Making](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.02522/) (2025)
- [ELHPlan: Efficient Long-Horizon Task Planning for Multi-Agent Collaboration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.24230/) (2025)
- [GauDP: Reinventing Multi-Agent Collaboration through Gaussian-Image Synergy in Diffusion Policies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.00998/) (2025)
- [RoboAct-CLIP: Video-Driven Pre-training of Atomic Action Understanding for Robotics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.02069/) (2025)
- [Advances and Innovations in the Multi-Agent Robotic System (MARS) Challenge](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.18733/) (2026)
- [Ego to World: Collaborative Spatial Reasoning in Embodied Systems via Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.14811/) (2026)
- [MultiUAV-Plat: An LLM-Oriented Platform, Benchmark and Framework for Multi-UAV Collaborative Task Planning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.31073/) (2026)
- [RobotFleet: An Open-Source Framework for Centralized Multi-Robot Task Planning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.10379/) (2025)
- [Rethinking Intermediate Representation for VLM-based Robot Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.19315/) (2025)
- [LLM-Grounded Dynamic Task Planning with Hierarchical Temporal Logic for Human-Aware Multi-Robot Handover](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.09472/) (2026)
- [MIRA: Memory-Integrated Reinforcement Learning Agent with Limited LLM Guidance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.17930/) (2026)
- [Verification-Gated Agentic Mission-State Governance for Intelligent Industrial Multi-Robot Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.31339/) (2026)
- [DuoMind: Enabling Distributed Multi-Robot Coordination with Semantic Communication](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.02161/) (2026)
- [MIND: Instruction-Conditioned Incremental Grounding for Robots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.19262/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Large Language Models (LLMs) have demonstrated promising reasoning capabilities in robotics; however, their application in multi-robot systems remains limited, particularly in handling task dependencies. This paper introduces DART-LLM, a novel framework that employs Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs) to model task dependencies, enabling the decomposition of natural language instructions into well-coordinated subtasks for multi-robot execution. DART-LLM comprises four key components: a Question-Answering (QA) LLM module for dependency-aware task decomposition, a Breakdown Function module for robot assignment, an Actuation module for execution, and a Vision-Language Model (VLM)-based object detector for environmental perception, achieving end-to-end task execution. Experimental results across three task complexity levels demonstrate that DART-LLM achieves state-of-the-art performance, significantly outperforming the baseline across all evaluation metrics. Among the tested models, DeepSeek-r1-671B achieves the highest success rate, whereas Llama-3.1-8B exhibits superior response time reliability. Ablation studies further confirm that explicit dependency modeling notably enhances the performance of smaller models, facilitating efficient deployment on resource-constrained platforms. Please refer to the project website https://wyd0817.github.io/project-dart-llm/ for videos and code.