Multi-Agent Coordination via Support-Preserving Distillation
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Abstract (arXiv)
Offline MARL increasingly relies on generative policies to model multimodal joint behavior, typically by distilling a centralized teacher into decentralized one-step actors under the CTDE. We identify a failure mode at the teacher training stage: standard flow-based teachers pair noise with replay targets independently, so nearby noise samples can be routed toward conflicting coordination modes. The teacher then produces samples between valid modes, and because the distillation loss regresses each local actor onto the conditional mean of the teacher's output given local input, this error is not absorbed but propagated to the student. To remove this teacher-side artifact, we propose Mode-Support Semi-Discrete Optimal Transport (MoSDOT), which summarizes multimodal replay into a finite mode support with prescribed capacities and uses conditional semi-discrete optimal transport to assign each noise sample to a single mode before teacher training. We additionally study a shared-randomness variant that uses a shared noise component at execution to expose the residual gap intrinsic to strict-product execution. On controlled diagnostics and offline MARL benchmarks, MoSDOT improves endpoint quality and routing consistency, particularly on datasets exhibiting multimodal joint behavior.
Key facts. No citing papers in the map yet (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 7 of its 32 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 7 Oct 2026.
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References · 7
- 2019Advantage-Weighted Regression: Simple and Scalable Off-Policy Reinforcement Learningcited by 750
- 2019The StarCraft Multi-Agent Challengecited by 589
- 2017Value-Decomposition Networks For Cooperative Multi-Agent Learningcited by 490
- 2026Generative Modeling via Driftingcited by 98
- 2023Off-the-Grid MARL: Datasets with Baselines for Offline Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learningcited by 7
- 2026From Flow to One Step: Real-Time Multi-Modal Trajectory Policies via Implicit Maximum Likelihood Estimation-based Distribution Distillationcited by 4
- 2026Value-Guidance MeanFlow for Offline Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learningcited by 3
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