Impact of Relational Networks in Multi-Agent Learning: A Value-Based Factorization View

Effective coordination and cooperation among agents are crucial for accomplishing individual or shared objectives in multi-agent systems. In many real-world multi-agent systems, agents possess varying abilities and constraints, making it necessary to prioritize agents based on their specific properties to ensure successful coordination and cooperation within the team. However, most existing cooperative multi-agent algorithms do not take into account these individual differences, and lack an effective mechanism to guide coordination strategies. We propose a novel multi-agent learning approach that incorporates relationship awareness into value-based factorization methods. Given a relational network, our approach utilizes inter-agents relationships to discover new team behaviors by prioritizing certain agents over other, accounting for differences between them in cooperative tasks. We evaluated the effectiveness of our proposed approach by conducting fifteen experiments in two different environments. The results demonstrate that our proposed algorithm can influence and shape team behavior, guide cooperation strategies, and expedite agent learning. Therefore, our approach shows promise for use in multi-agent systems, especially when agents have diverse properties.