Rainbow Delay Compensation: A Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning Framework for Mitigating Delayed Observation

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Fu, Songchen, Chen, Siang, Zhao, Shaojing, Bai, Letian, Li, Ta, Yan, Yonghong
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
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author Fu, Songchen
Chen, Siang
Zhao, Shaojing
Bai, Letian
Li, Ta
Yan, Yonghong
author_facet Fu, Songchen
Chen, Siang
Zhao, Shaojing
Bai, Letian
Li, Ta
Yan, Yonghong
contents In real-world multi-agent systems (MASs), observation delays are ubiquitous, preventing agents from making decisions based on the environment's true state. An individual agent's local observation typically comprises multiple components from other agents or dynamic entities within the environment. These discrete observation components with varying delay characteristics pose significant challenges for multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL). In this paper, we first formulate the decentralized stochastic individual delay partially observable Markov decision process (DSID-POMDP) by extending the standard Dec-POMDP. We then propose the Rainbow Delay Compensation (RDC), a MARL training framework for addressing stochastic individual delays, along with recommended implementations for its constituent modules. We implement the DSID-POMDP's observation generation pattern using standard MARL benchmarks, including MPE and SMAC. Experiments demonstrate that baseline MARL methods suffer severe performance degradation under fixed and unfixed delays. The RDC-enhanced approach mitigates this issue, remarkably achieving ideal delay-free performance in certain delay scenarios while maintaining generalizability. Our work provides a novel perspective on multi-agent delayed observation problems and offers an effective solution framework. The source code is available at https://github.com/linkjoker1006/RDC-pymarl.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_03586
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Rainbow Delay Compensation: A Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning Framework for Mitigating Delayed Observation
Fu, Songchen
Chen, Siang
Zhao, Shaojing
Bai, Letian
Li, Ta
Yan, Yonghong
Multiagent Systems
Artificial Intelligence
68T07 (Primary), 68T20, 68T42 (Secondary)
I.2
In real-world multi-agent systems (MASs), observation delays are ubiquitous, preventing agents from making decisions based on the environment's true state. An individual agent's local observation typically comprises multiple components from other agents or dynamic entities within the environment. These discrete observation components with varying delay characteristics pose significant challenges for multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL). In this paper, we first formulate the decentralized stochastic individual delay partially observable Markov decision process (DSID-POMDP) by extending the standard Dec-POMDP. We then propose the Rainbow Delay Compensation (RDC), a MARL training framework for addressing stochastic individual delays, along with recommended implementations for its constituent modules. We implement the DSID-POMDP's observation generation pattern using standard MARL benchmarks, including MPE and SMAC. Experiments demonstrate that baseline MARL methods suffer severe performance degradation under fixed and unfixed delays. The RDC-enhanced approach mitigates this issue, remarkably achieving ideal delay-free performance in certain delay scenarios while maintaining generalizability. Our work provides a novel perspective on multi-agent delayed observation problems and offers an effective solution framework. The source code is available at https://github.com/linkjoker1006/RDC-pymarl.
title Rainbow Delay Compensation: A Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning Framework for Mitigating Delayed Observation
topic Multiagent Systems
Artificial Intelligence
68T07 (Primary), 68T20, 68T42 (Secondary)
I.2
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.03586