In a typical e-commerce setting, Content Ranking Optimization (CRO) mechanisms are employed to surface content on the search page to fulfill customers' shopping missions. CRO commonly utilizes models such as contextual deep bandits model to independently rank content at different positions, e.g., one optimizer dedicated to organic search results and another to sponsored results. However, this regional optimization approach does not necessarily translate to whole page optimization, e.g., maximizing revenue at the top of the page may inadvertently diminish the revenue of lower positions. In this paper, we propose a reinforcement learning based method for whole page ranking to jointly optimize across all positions by: 1) shifting from position level optimization to whole page level optimization to achieve an overall optimized ranking; 2) applying reinforcement learning to optimize for the cumulative rewards instead of the instant reward. We formulate page level CRO as a cooperative Multi-agent Markov Decision Process , and address it with the novel Multi-Agent Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (MADDPG) model. MADDPG supports a flexible and scalable joint optimization framework by adopting a "centralized training and decentralized execution" approach. Extensive experiments demonstrate that MADDPG scales to a 2.5 billion action space in the public Mujoco environment, and outperforms the deep bandits modeling by 25.7% on the offline CRO data set from a leading e-commerce company. We foresee that this novel multi-agent optimization is applicable to similar joint optimization problems in the field of information retrieval.

In this paper we explore the performance of deep hidden physics model (M. Raissi 2018) for autonomous systems. These systems are described by set of ordinary differential equations which do not explicitly depend on time. Such systems can be found in nature and have applications in modeling chemical concentrations, population dynamics, n-body problems in physics etc. In this work we consider dynamics of states, which explain how the states will evolve are unknown to us. We approximate state and dynamics both using neural networks. We have considered examples of 2D linear/nonlinear and Lorenz systems. We observe that even without knowing all the states information, we can estimate dynamics of certain states whose state information are known.

Credit assignment is a core problem that distinguishes agents' marginal contributions for optimizing cooperative strategies in multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL). Current credit assignment methods usually assume synchronous decision-making among agents. However, a prerequisite for many realistic cooperative tasks is asynchronous decision-making by agents, without waiting for others to avoid disastrous consequences. To address this issue, we propose an asynchronous credit assignment framework with a problem model called ADEX-POMDP and a multiplicative value decomposition (MVD) algorithm. ADEX-POMDP is an asynchronous problem model with extra virtual agents for a decentralized partially observable markov decision process. We prove that ADEX-POMDP preserves both the task equilibrium and the algorithm convergence. MVD utilizes multiplicative interaction to efficiently capture the interactions of asynchronous decisions, and we theoretically demonstrate its advantages in handling asynchronous tasks. Experimental results show that on two asynchronous decision-making benchmarks, Overcooked and POAC, MVD not only consistently outperforms state-of-the-art MARL methods but also provides the interpretability for asynchronous cooperation.

This paper focuses on enhancing human-agent communication by integrating spatial context into virtual agents' non-verbal behaviors, specifically gestures. Recent advances in co-speech gesture generation have primarily utilized data-driven methods, which create natural motion but limit the scope of gestures to those performed in a void. Our work aims to extend these methods by enabling generative models to incorporate scene information into speech-driven gesture synthesis. We introduce a novel synthetic gesture dataset tailored for this purpose. This development represents a critical step toward creating embodied conversational agents that interact more naturally with their environment and users.

Accessibility is crucial for inclusive app usability, yet developers often struggle to identify and fix app accessibility issues due to a lack of awareness, expertise, and inadequate tools. Current accessibility testing tools can identify accessibility issues but may not always provide guidance on how to address them. We introduce FixAlly, an automated tool designed to suggest source code fixes for accessibility issues detected by automated accessibility scanners. FixAlly employs a multi-agent LLM architecture to generate fix strategies, localize issues within the source code, and propose code modification suggestions to fix the accessibility issue. Our empirical study demonstrates FixAlly's capability in suggesting fixes that resolve issues found by accessibility scanners -- with an effectiveness of 77% in generating plausible fix suggestions -- and our survey of 12 iOS developers finds they would be willing to accept 69.4% of evaluated fix suggestions.

Building a general-purpose agent is a long-standing vision in the field of artificial intelligence. Existing agents have made remarkable progress in many domains, yet they still struggle to complete long-horizon tasks in an open world. We attribute this to the lack of necessary world knowledge and multimodal experience that can guide agents through a variety of long-horizon tasks. In this paper, we propose a Hybrid Multimodal Memory module to address the above challenges. It 1) transforms knowledge into Hierarchical Directed Knowledge Graph that allows agents to explicitly represent and learn world knowledge, and 2) summarises historical information into Abstracted Multimodal Experience Pool that provide agents with rich references for in-context learning. On top of the Hybrid Multimodal Memory module, a multimodal agent, Optimus-1, is constructed with dedicated Knowledge-guided Planner and Experience-Driven Reflector, contributing to a better planning and reflection in the face of long-horizon tasks in Minecraft. Extensive experimental results show that Optimus-1 significantly outperforms all existing agents on challenging long-horizon task benchmarks, and exhibits near human-level performance on many tasks. In addition, we introduce various Multimodal Large Language Models (MLLMs) as the backbone of Optimus-1. Experimental results show that Optimus-1 exhibits strong generalization with the help of the Hybrid Multimodal Memory module, outperforming the GPT-4V baseline on many tasks.

Process models are frequently used in software engineering to describe business requirements, guide software testing and control system improvement. However, traditional process modeling methods often require the participation of numerous experts, which is expensive and time-consuming. Therefore, the exploration of a more efficient and cost-effective automated modeling method has emerged as a focal point in current research. This article explores a framework for automatically generating process models with multi-agent orchestration (MAO), aiming to enhance the efficiency of process modeling and offer valuable insights for domain experts. Our framework MAO leverages large language models as the cornerstone for multi-agent, employing an innovative prompt strategy to ensure efficient collaboration among multi-agent. Specifically, 1) generation. The first phase of MAO is to generate a slightly rough process model from the text description; 2) refinement. The agents would continuously refine the initial process model through multiple rounds of dialogue; 3) reviewing. Large language models are prone to hallucination phenomena among multi-turn dialogues, so the agents need to review and repair semantic hallucinations in process models; 4) testing. The representation of process models is diverse. Consequently, the agents utilize external tools to test whether the generated process model contains format errors, namely format hallucinations, and then adjust the process model to conform to the output paradigm. The experiments demonstrate that the process models generated by our framework outperform existing methods and surpass manual modeling by 89%, 61%, 52%, and 75% on four different datasets, respectively.

Large-scale multi-session LiDAR mapping is essential for a wide range of applications, including surveying, autonomous driving, crowdsourced mapping, and multi-agent navigation. However, existing approaches often struggle with data redundancy, robustness, and accuracy in complex environments. To address these challenges, we present MS-Mapping, an novel multi-session LiDAR mapping system that employs an incremental mapping scheme for robust and accurate map assembly in large-scale environments. Our approach introduces three key innovations: 1) A distribution-aware keyframe selection method that captures the subtle contributions of each point cloud frame to the map by analyzing the similarity of map distributions. This method effectively reduces data redundancy and pose graph size, while enhancing graph optimization speed; 2) An uncertainty model that automatically performs least-squares adjustments according to the covariance matrix during graph optimization, improving mapping precision, robustness, and flexibility without the need for scene-specific parameter tuning. This uncertainty model enables our system to monitor pose uncertainty and avoid ill-posed optimizations, thereby increasing adaptability to diverse and challenging environments. 3) To ensure fair evaluation, we redesign baseline comparisons and the evaluation benchmark. Direct assessment of map accuracy demonstrates the superiority of the proposed MS-Mapping algorithm compared to state-of-the-art methods. In addition to employing public datasets such as Urban-Nav, FusionPortable, and Newer College, we conducted extensive experiments on such a large \SI{855}{m}$\times$\SI{636}{m} ground truth map, collecting over \SI{20}{km} of indoor and outdoor data across more than ten sequences...

This paper introduces a novel approach Counterfactual Shapley Values (CSV), which enhances explainability in reinforcement learning (RL) by integrating counterfactual analysis with Shapley Values. The approach aims to quantify and compare the contributions of different state dimensions to various action choices. To more accurately analyze these impacts, we introduce new characteristic value functions, the ``Counterfactual Difference Characteristic Value" and the ``Average Counterfactual Difference Characteristic Value." These functions help calculate the Shapley values to evaluate the differences in contributions between optimal and non-optimal actions. Experiments across several RL domains, such as GridWorld, FrozenLake, and Taxi, demonstrate the effectiveness of the CSV method. The results show that this method not only improves transparency in complex RL systems but also quantifies the differences across various decisions.

Generating a realistic, large-scale 3D virtual city remains a complex challenge due to the involvement of numerous 3D assets, various city styles, and strict layout constraints. Existing approaches provide promising attempts at procedural content generation to create large-scale scenes using Blender agents. However, they face crucial issues such as difficulties in scaling up generation capability and achieving fine-grained control at the semantic layout level. To address these problems, we propose a novel multi-modal controllable procedural content generation method, named CityX, which enhances realistic, unbounded 3D city generation guided by multiple layout conditions, including OSM, semantic maps, and satellite images. Specifically, the proposed method contains a general protocol for integrating various PCG plugins and a multi-agent framework for transforming instructions into executable Blender actions. Through this effective framework, CityX shows the potential to build an innovative ecosystem for 3D scene generation by bridging the gap between the quality of generated assets and industrial requirements. Extensive experiments have demonstrated the effectiveness of our method in creating high-quality, diverse, and unbounded cities guided by multi-modal conditions. Our project page: https://cityx-lab.github.io.