Robotics: Science and Systems XXII

A Closed-Loop Multi-Agent Framework for Robust Multi-Robot Manipulation

Yi-Xiang He, Lan Wei, Haoming Cen, Jian-Jian Jiang, Zhuohao Li, Guanxing Lu, Yihan Yang, Dandan Zhang, Wei-Shi Zheng

Abstract:

Multi-robot systems provide the parallelism and redundancy necessary for long-horizon tasks, while Large Language Models (LLMs) offer the reasoning capabilities to decompose these objectives into actionable plans. However, effectively grounding this high-level reasoning in physical multi-agent execution remains an open challenge. Existing LLM-based approaches fall mainly into two categories: Single-robot methods achieve robust contact-rich manipulation but lack the coordination mechanisms required for tasks spanning multiple workspaces. Current multi-robot frameworks focus on high-level planning, often treating manipulation as an idealized primitive that fails to account for real-world execution uncertainties. To address this, we propose a novel closed-loop agentic LLM-based framework to ensure robust multi-robot manipulation. Our system consists of three specialized agents: the Planning Agent decomposes instructions into allocated sub-tasks, the Manipulation Agent for each robot executes actions via adaptive tool use, and the Verification Agent closes the loop by monitoring physical outcomes and feeding back semantic corrections. Extensive real-world experiments demonstrate that our framework achieves superior success rates, ensures robust adaptability ranging from single to cross workspace manipulation, and offers a generalizable approach for diverse manipulation tasks.

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Bibtex:

  
@INPROCEEDINGS{HeY-RSS-26, 
    AUTHOR    = {Yi-Xiang He AND Lan Wei AND Haoming Cen AND Jian-Jian Jiang AND Zhuohao Li AND Guanxing Lu AND Yihan Yang AND Dandan Zhang AND Wei-Shi Zheng}, 
    TITLE     = {{A Closed-Loop Multi-Agent Framework for Robust Multi-Robot Manipulation}}, 
    BOOKTITLE = {Proceedings of Robotics: Science and Systems}, 
    YEAR      = {2026}, 
    ADDRESS   = {Sydney, Australia}, 
    MONTH     = {July}, 
    DOI       = {10.15607/RSS.2026.XXII.036} 
}