Structured interactions improve distributed coordination beyond model scaling in a real-world multi-robot system
This study uses a real-world transport-and-mapping task with 10 physical robots to show that restructuring communication from fully connected to modular hierarchical interactions improves normalized performance by 47 points, while doubling neural network hidden size yields at most 9 points. Nested mixed-effects models confirm topology's larger impact. Performance saturates beyond 1024 hidden units in simulation-calibrated extrapolation. Results suggest interaction structure can dominate gains within tested settings, but broader generalization remains unestablished.
[2605.30383] Structured interactions improve distributed coordination beyond model scaling in a real-world multi-robot system
[Submitted on 28 May 2026]
Title:Structured interactions improve distributed coordination beyond model scaling in a real-world multi-robot system
View a PDF of the paper titled Structured interactions improve distributed coordination beyond model scaling in a real-world multi-robot system, by Junping Wang and 7 other authors
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Abstract:Scaling individual robot capabilities is common but costly. Here we investigate a system-level design question in real-world multi-robot coordination: given matched hardware budgets, does restructuring communication among robots yield larger gains than increasing onboard model size? Using a representative transport-and-mapping task with 10 physical robots (5 runs per condition, 60 runs total), we find that switching from fully connected to modular hierarchical interactions improves normalised performance by 47 points (0--100), whereas doubling neural network hidden size yields at most 9 points. Nested mixed-effects model comparisons show a substantially larger improvement in model fit for topology than for scale. The pattern is confirmed in independent SMAC replications; heterogeneous benchmark reanalyses provide secondary supporting consistency checks rather than primary evidence. Performance saturation beyond 1024 hidden units is observed in simulation-calibrated extrapolation, not directly on hardware. These results indicate that interaction structure can play a dominant role within the tested system and task setting, while broader quantitative generalisation remains to be established.
Subjects:
Robotics (cs.RO); Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI)
Cite as: arXiv:2605.30383 [cs.RO]
(or arXiv:2605.30383v1 [cs.RO] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2605.30383
arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite
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From: JunPing Wang [view email] [v1] Thu, 28 May 2026 03:21:52 UTC (2,322 KB)
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