In this work, we propose data-efficient and interpretable machine learning models for learning to solve numeric planning tasks.

This work was done when the author was with Rutgers University.

Robotic applications often involve working in environments that are uncertain, dynamic, and partially observable. Recently, diffusion models have been proposed for learning trajectory prediction models trained from expert demonstrations, which can be used for planning in robot tasks. Such models have demonstrated a strong ability to overcome challenges such as multi-modal action distributions, high-dimensional output spaces, and training instability. It is crucial to quantify the uncertainty of these dynamics models when using them for planning. In this paper, we quantify the uncertainty of diffusion dynamics models using Conformal Prediction (CP).

Intrigued by the claims of emergent reasoning capabilities in LLMs trained on general web corpora, in this paper, we set out to investigate their planning capabilities. We aim to evaluate (1) the effectiveness of LLMs in generating plans autonomously in commonsense planning tasks and (2) the potential of LLMs as a source of heuristic guidance for other agents (AI planners) in their planning tasks. We conduct a systematic study by generating a suite of instances on domains similar to the ones employed in the International Planning Competition and evaluate LLMs in two distinct modes: autonomous and heuristic. Our findings reveal that LLMs' ability to generate executable plans autonomously is rather limited, with the best model (GPT-4) having an average success rate of ~12% across the domains.

Yet, most rely on anecdotes, overlook contamination of training sets, or lack systematic Evaluation involving multiple tasks, control conditions, multiple iterations, and statistical robustness tests. Here we make two major contributions. First, we propose CogEval, a cognitive science-inspired protocol for the systematic evaluation of cognitive capacities in LLMs. The CogEval protocol can be followed for the evaluation of various abilities. Second, here we follow CogEval to systematically evaluate cognitive maps and planning ability across eight LLMs (OpenAI GPT-4, GPT-3.5-turbo-175B,

Planning has been a cornerstone of artificial intelligence for solving complex problems, and recent progress in LLM-based multi-agent frameworks have begun to extend this capability. However, the role of human-like memory within these frameworks remains largely unexplored. Understanding how agents coordinate through memory is critical for natural language planning, where iterative reasoning, constraint tracking, and error correction drive the success. Inspired by working memory model in cognitive psychology, we present EvoMem, a multi-agent framework built on a dual-evolving memory mechanism. The framework consists of three agents (Constraint Extractor, Verifier, and Actor) and two memory modules: Constraint Memory (CMem), which evolves across queries by storing task-specific rules and constraints while remains fixed within a query, and Query-feedback Memory (QMem), which evolves within a query by accumulating feedback across iterations for solution refinement. Both memory modules are reset at the end of each query session. Evaluations on trip planning, meeting planning, and calendar scheduling show consistent performance improvements, highlighting the effectiveness of EvoMem. This success underscores the importance of memory in enhancing multi-agent planning.

Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models in autonomous driving systems have recently demonstrated transformative potential by integrating multimodal perception with decision-making capabilities. However, the interpretability and coherence of the decision process and the plausibility of action sequences remain largely underexplored. To address these issues, we propose AutoDrive-R$^2$, a novel VLA framework that enhances both reasoning and self-reflection capabilities of autonomous driving systems through chain-of-thought (CoT) processing and reinforcement learning (RL). Specifically, we first propose an innovative CoT dataset named nuScenesR$^2$-6K for supervised fine-tuning, which effectively builds cognitive bridges between input information and output trajectories through a four-step logical chain with self-reflection for validation. Moreover, to maximize both reasoning and self-reflection during the RL stage, we further employ the Group Relative Policy Optimization (GRPO) algorithm within a physics-grounded reward framework that incorporates spatial alignment, vehicle dynamic, and temporal smoothness criteria to ensure reliable and realistic trajectory planning. Extensive evaluation results across both nuScenes and Waymo datasets demonstrates the state-of-the-art performance and robust generalization capacity of our proposed method.

In this work, we propose data-efficient and interpretable machine learning models for learning to solve numeric planning tasks.

This work was done when the author was with Rutgers University.