Training Multi-Modal LLMs through Dialogue Planning for HRI

Claudiu Daniel Hromei, Federico Borazio, Andrea Sensi, Elisa Passone, Danilo Croce, Roberto Basili


Abstract
Grounded natural language understanding in Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) requires integrating linguistic, visual, and world knowledge to ensure effective task execution. We propose an approach that enhances Multi-Modal Large Language Models (MLLMs) with a novel explicit dialogue planning phase, allowing robotic agents to systematically refine their understanding of ambiguous commands through structured clarification steps. This reduces hallucinations and improves task feasibility.To evaluate this approach, we introduce a novel dataset of over 1,100 annotated dialogues in English and Italian, designed for fine-tuning and assessing Multi-Modal models in HRI scenarios. Experimental results show that dialogue planning improves response accuracy and quality, and contributes to cross-lingual generalisation, enabling models trained in one language to transfer effectively to another. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first application of structured, goal-driven, and explicit dialogue planning in Multi-Modal LLMs for grounded interaction.
Anthology ID:
2025.findings-acl.837
Volume:
Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: ACL 2025
Month:
July
Year:
2025
Address:
Vienna, Austria
Editors:
Wanxiang Che, Joyce Nabende, Ekaterina Shutova, Mohammad Taher Pilehvar
Venue:
Findings
SIG:
Publisher:
Association for Computational Linguistics
Note:
Pages:
16266–16284
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URL:
https://preview.aclanthology.org/display_plenaries/2025.findings-acl.837/
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Bibkey:
Cite (ACL):
Claudiu Daniel Hromei, Federico Borazio, Andrea Sensi, Elisa Passone, Danilo Croce, and Roberto Basili. 2025. Training Multi-Modal LLMs through Dialogue Planning for HRI. In Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: ACL 2025, pages 16266–16284, Vienna, Austria. Association for Computational Linguistics.
Cite (Informal):
Training Multi-Modal LLMs through Dialogue Planning for HRI (Hromei et al., Findings 2025)
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https://preview.aclanthology.org/display_plenaries/2025.findings-acl.837.pdf