Related papers: Boosting MCTS with Free Energy Minimization

Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) algorithms have achieved great success on many challenging benchmarks (e.g., Computer Go). However, they generally require a large number of rollouts, making their applications costly. Furthermore, it is also…

Despite recent advances in large language models, open-source models often struggle to consistently perform well on complex reasoning tasks. Existing ensemble methods, whether applied at the token or output levels, fail to address these…

Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) has showcased its efficacy across a broad spectrum of decision-making problems. However, its performance often degrades under vast combinatorial action space, especially where an action is composed of multiple…

Monte Carlo tree search (MCTS) is a popular choice for solving sequential anytime problems. However, it depends on a numeric feedback signal, which can be difficult to define. Real-time MCTS is a variant which may only rarely encounter…

A basic simulation-based reinforcement learning algorithm is the Monte Carlo Exploring States (MCES) method, also known as optimistic policy iteration, in which the value function is approximated by simulated returns and a greedy policy is…

In many problem settings, most notably in game playing, an agent receives a possibly delayed reward for its actions. Often, those rewards are handcrafted and not naturally given. Even simple terminal-only rewards, like winning equals 1 and…

Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) is a sampling best-first method to search for optimal decisions. The success of MCTS depends heavily on how the tree is built and the selection process plays a fundamental role in this. One particular…

Active inference is a state-of-the-art framework for modelling the brain that explains a wide range of mechanisms such as habit formation, dopaminergic discharge and curiosity. However, recent implementations suffer from an exponential…

Large Language Models (LLM) are increasingly being explored for problem-solving tasks. However, their strategic planning capability is often viewed with skepticism. Recent studies have incorporated the Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS)…

PRISM-MCTS: Learning from Reasoning Trajectories with Metacognitive Reflection Siyuan Cheng, Bozhong Tian, Yanchao Hao, Zheng Wei Published: 06 Apr 2026, Last Modified: 06 Apr 2026 ACL 2026 Findings Conference, Area Chairs, Reviewers,…

We develop an active inference route-planning method for the autonomous control of intelligent agents. The aim is to reconnoiter a geographical area to maintain a common operational picture. To achieve this, we construct an evidence map…

Recent works in high-dimensional model-predictive control and model-based reinforcement learning with learned dynamics and reward models have resorted to population-based optimization methods, such as the Cross-Entropy Method (CEM), for…

In this paper, we consider the online computation of a strategy that aims at optimizing the expected average reward in a Markov decision process. The strategy is computed with a receding horizon and using Monte Carlo tree search (MCTS). We…

This article presents MCTS-BN, an adaptation of the Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) algorithm for the structural learning of Bayesian Networks (BNs). Initially designed for game tree exploration, MCTS has been repurposed to address the…

Actor-critic methods, like Twin Delayed Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (TD3), depend on basic noise-based exploration, which can result in less than optimal policy convergence. In this study, we introduce Monte Carlo Beam Search (MCBS),…

The central tenet of reinforcement learning (RL) is that agents seek to maximize the sum of cumulative rewards. In contrast, active inference, an emerging framework within cognitive and computational neuroscience, proposes that agents act…

This work investigates the Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) method combined with dedicated heuristics for solving the Weighted Vertex Coloring Problem. In addition to the basic MCTS algorithm, we study several MCTS variants where the…

We examine a type of modified Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) for strategising in combinatorial games. The modifications are derived by analysing simplified strategies and simplified versions of the underlying game and then using the results…

Standard approaches for global optimization of non-convex functions, such as branch-and-bound, maintain partition trees to systematically prune the domain. The tree size grows exponentially in the number of dimensions. We propose new…

Many robotic tasks, such as inverse kinematics, motion planning, and optimal control, can be formulated as optimization problems. Solving these problems involves addressing nonlinear kinematics, complex contact dynamics, long-horizon…