FORMICA: Decision-Focused Learning for Communication-Free Multi-Robot Task Allocation

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2602.18622v1
• Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2026 21:26:46 GMT
• Title: FORMICA: Decision-Focused Learning for Communication-Free Multi-Robot Task Allocation
• Abstract summary: We introduce a learning-based framework that achieves high-quality task allocation without any robot-to-robot communication.<n>Our method predicts bid distributions to correct systematic errors in analytical mean-field approximations.<n>We train predictors end-to-end to minimize Task Allocation Regret rather than prediction error.
• Score: 0.802904964931021
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
• Abstract: Most multi-robot task allocation methods rely on communication to resolve conflicts and reach consistent assignments. In environments with limited bandwidth, degraded infrastructure, or adversarial interference, existing approaches degrade sharply. We introduce a learning-based framework that achieves high-quality task allocation without any robot-to-robot communication. The key idea is that robots coordinate implicitly by predicting teammates' bids: if each robot can anticipate competition for a task, it can adjust its choices accordingly. Our method predicts bid distributions to correct systematic errors in analytical mean-field approximations. While analytical predictions assume idealized conditions (uniform distributions, known bid functions), our learned approach adapts to task clustering and spatial heterogeneity. Inspired by Smart Predict-then-Optimize (SPO), we train predictors end-to-end to minimize Task Allocation Regret rather than prediction error. To scale to large swarms, we develop a mean-field approximation where each robot predicts the distribution of competing bids rather than individual bids, reducing complexity from $O(NT)$ to $O(T)$. We call our approach FORMICA: Field-Oriented Regret-Minimizing Implicit Coordination Algorithm. Experiments show FORMICA substantially outperforms a natural analytical baseline. In scenarios with 16 robots and 64 tasks, our approach improves system reward by 17% and approaches the optimal MILP solution. When deployed on larger scenarios (256 robots, 4096 tasks), the same model improves performance by 7%, demonstrating strong generalization. Training requires only 21 seconds on a laptop, enabling rapid adaptation to new environments.

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