Heterogeneous Agent Collaborative Reinforcement Learning

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Zhang, Zhixia, Huang, Zixuan, Li, Gongxun, Wang, Huaiyang, Yuan, Chengyi, Xia, Xin, Wang, Deqing, Zhuang, Fuzhen, Ma, Shuai, Ding, Ning, Yang, Yaodong, Li, Jianxin, Ban, Yikun
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Zhang, Zhixia
Huang, Zixuan
Li, Gongxun
Wang, Huaiyang
Yuan, Chengyi
Xia, Xin
Wang, Deqing
Zhuang, Fuzhen
Ma, Shuai
Ding, Ning
Yang, Yaodong
Li, Jianxin
Ban, Yikun
author_facet Zhang, Zhixia
Huang, Zixuan
Li, Gongxun
Wang, Huaiyang
Yuan, Chengyi
Xia, Xin
Wang, Deqing
Zhuang, Fuzhen
Ma, Shuai
Ding, Ning
Yang, Yaodong
Li, Jianxin
Ban, Yikun
contents We introduce Heterogeneous Agent Collaborative Reinforcement Learning (HACRL), a new Reinforcement Learning from Verifiable Reward (RLVR) problem that addresses the inefficiencies of isolated multi-agent on-policy optimization. HACRL enables collaborative optimization with independent execution: heterogeneous agents share verified rollouts during training to mutually improve, while operating independently at inference time. Unlike LLM-based multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL), HACRL does not require coordinated deployment, and unlike on-/off-policy distillation, it enables bidirectional mutual learning among heterogeneous agents rather than one-directional homogeneous teacher-to-student transfer. Building on this problem, we propose HACPO, a collaborative RL algorithm that enables principled rollout sharing to maximize sample utilization and cross-agent knowledge transfer. To mitigate capability discrepancies and policy distribution shifts, HACPO introduces four tailored mechanisms with theoretical guarantees on unbiased advantage estimation. Extensive experiments across diverse heterogeneous model combinations and reasoning benchmarks show that HACPO consistently improves all participating agents, outperforming GSPO with double rollouts by an average of 3.6% while using only half the rollout cost.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_02604
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Heterogeneous Agent Collaborative Reinforcement Learning
Zhang, Zhixia
Huang, Zixuan
Li, Gongxun
Wang, Huaiyang
Yuan, Chengyi
Xia, Xin
Wang, Deqing
Zhuang, Fuzhen
Ma, Shuai
Ding, Ning
Yang, Yaodong
Li, Jianxin
Ban, Yikun
Machine Learning
We introduce Heterogeneous Agent Collaborative Reinforcement Learning (HACRL), a new Reinforcement Learning from Verifiable Reward (RLVR) problem that addresses the inefficiencies of isolated multi-agent on-policy optimization. HACRL enables collaborative optimization with independent execution: heterogeneous agents share verified rollouts during training to mutually improve, while operating independently at inference time. Unlike LLM-based multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL), HACRL does not require coordinated deployment, and unlike on-/off-policy distillation, it enables bidirectional mutual learning among heterogeneous agents rather than one-directional homogeneous teacher-to-student transfer. Building on this problem, we propose HACPO, a collaborative RL algorithm that enables principled rollout sharing to maximize sample utilization and cross-agent knowledge transfer. To mitigate capability discrepancies and policy distribution shifts, HACPO introduces four tailored mechanisms with theoretical guarantees on unbiased advantage estimation. Extensive experiments across diverse heterogeneous model combinations and reasoning benchmarks show that HACPO consistently improves all participating agents, outperforming GSPO with double rollouts by an average of 3.6% while using only half the rollout cost.
title Heterogeneous Agent Collaborative Reinforcement Learning
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.02604