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Main Authors: Liu, Jun, Zhao, Pu, Kong, Zhenglun, Shen, Xuan, Dong, Peiyan, Yang, Fan, Cui, Lin, Tang, Hao, Yuan, Geng, Niu, Wei, Zhang, Wenbin, Lin, Xue, Liu, Gaowen, Wang, Yanzhi, Huang, Dong
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.16673
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author Liu, Jun
Zhao, Pu
Kong, Zhenglun
Shen, Xuan
Dong, Peiyan
Yang, Fan
Cui, Lin
Tang, Hao
Yuan, Geng
Niu, Wei
Zhang, Wenbin
Lin, Xue
Liu, Gaowen
Wang, Yanzhi
Huang, Dong
author_facet Liu, Jun
Zhao, Pu
Kong, Zhenglun
Shen, Xuan
Dong, Peiyan
Yang, Fan
Cui, Lin
Tang, Hao
Yuan, Geng
Niu, Wei
Zhang, Wenbin
Lin, Xue
Liu, Gaowen
Wang, Yanzhi
Huang, Dong
contents Embodied robotic systems increasingly rely on large language model (LLM)-based agents to support high-level reasoning, planning, and decision-making during interactions with the environment. However, invoking LLM reasoning introduces substantial computational latency and resource overhead, which can interrupt action execution and reduce system reliability. Excessive reasoning may delay actions, while insufficient reasoning often leads to incorrect decisions and task failures. This raises a fundamental question for embodied agents: when should the agent reason, and when should it act? In this work, we propose RARRL (Resource-Aware Reasoning via Reinforcement Learning), a hierarchical framework for resource-aware orchestration of embodied agents. Rather than learning low-level control policies, RARRL learns a high-level orchestration policy that operates at the agent's decision-making layer. This policy enables the agent to adaptively determine whether to invoke reasoning, which reasoning role to employ, and how much computational budget to allocate based on current observations, execution history, and remaining resources. Extensive experiments, including evaluations with empirical latency profiles derived from the ALFRED benchmark, show that RARRL consistently improves task success rates while reducing execution latency and enhancing robustness compared with fixed or heuristic reasoning strategies. These results demonstrate that adaptive reasoning control is essential for building reliable and efficient embodied robotic agents.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_16673
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle When Should a Robot Think? Resource-Aware Reasoning via Reinforcement Learning for Embodied Robotic Decision-Making
Liu, Jun
Zhao, Pu
Kong, Zhenglun
Shen, Xuan
Dong, Peiyan
Yang, Fan
Cui, Lin
Tang, Hao
Yuan, Geng
Niu, Wei
Zhang, Wenbin
Lin, Xue
Liu, Gaowen
Wang, Yanzhi
Huang, Dong
Robotics
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
Embodied robotic systems increasingly rely on large language model (LLM)-based agents to support high-level reasoning, planning, and decision-making during interactions with the environment. However, invoking LLM reasoning introduces substantial computational latency and resource overhead, which can interrupt action execution and reduce system reliability. Excessive reasoning may delay actions, while insufficient reasoning often leads to incorrect decisions and task failures. This raises a fundamental question for embodied agents: when should the agent reason, and when should it act? In this work, we propose RARRL (Resource-Aware Reasoning via Reinforcement Learning), a hierarchical framework for resource-aware orchestration of embodied agents. Rather than learning low-level control policies, RARRL learns a high-level orchestration policy that operates at the agent's decision-making layer. This policy enables the agent to adaptively determine whether to invoke reasoning, which reasoning role to employ, and how much computational budget to allocate based on current observations, execution history, and remaining resources. Extensive experiments, including evaluations with empirical latency profiles derived from the ALFRED benchmark, show that RARRL consistently improves task success rates while reducing execution latency and enhancing robustness compared with fixed or heuristic reasoning strategies. These results demonstrate that adaptive reasoning control is essential for building reliable and efficient embodied robotic agents.
title When Should a Robot Think? Resource-Aware Reasoning via Reinforcement Learning for Embodied Robotic Decision-Making
topic Robotics
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.16673