About the project
This PhD develops language-guided multi-agent reinforcement learning to enhance coordination in multi-robot systems. You will design frameworks for inter-robot negotiation, optimize training efficiency, and evaluate performance in collaborative tasks, contributing to advanced autonomous robotics with applications in search and rescue, environmental monitoring, and complex team-based operations.
Multi-robot systems are increasingly utilized in complex tasks such as search and rescue operations, environmental monitoring, and collaborative manufacturing. Traditional training methods for these systems often require extensive trial-and-error episodes, which can be time-consuming and resource-intensive.
This PhD project introduces a novel approach that integrates large language models (LLMs) into the training process to enhance coordination and reduce training time.
The core objectives of this research are:
- Language-Based Negotiation: equip robots with LLMs to facilitate natural language communication, enabling them to negotiate and plan tasks collaboratively;
- Hybrid Training Approach: develop a dynamic training framework that alternates between reinforcement learning and language-guided negotiation, optimizing the learning process.
- Performance Evaluation: assess the effectiveness of the approach by comparing it with traditional multi-agent reinforcement learning methods in terms of training efficiency and task performance.
A variety of robotic platforms are available for you including wheeled, legged and aerial robotic platforms.
The School of Electronics & Computer Science is committed to promoting equality, diversity inclusivity as demonstrated by our Athena SWAN award. We welcome all applicants regardless of their gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation or age, and will give full consideration to applicants seeking flexible working patterns and those who have taken a career break. The University has a generous maternity policy, onsite childcare facilities, and offers a range of benefits to help ensure employees’ well-being and work-life balance. The University of Southampton is committed to sustainability and has been awarded the Platinum EcoAward.
