Multi-Level Abstractions and
Causal Modeling for Enhanced
Reinforcement Learning

@article{aalailaChaoticAndComplexDynamics2026,
 author = {Yahya Aalaila and Gerrit Großmann and Sumantrak Mukherjee and Jonas Wahl and Sebastian Vollmer},
 doi = {10.1038/s41598-026-52349-2},
 journal = {Scientific Reports (Sci Rep)},
 month = {6},
 number = {1},
 pages = {1-14},
 publisher = {Springer Nature},
 title = {Chaotic and complex dynamics expose the limits of counterfactual reasoning},
 url = {https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-52349-2},
 volume = {16},
 year = {2026}
}

@inproceedings{mullerPerDomainGeneralizingPoliciesOn2026,
 author = {Müller, Nicola J. and Oster, Moritz and Valera, Isabel and Hoffmann, Jörg and Gros, Timo P.},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the Thirty-Sixth International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling. International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling (ICAPS-2026), June 27 - July 2, Dublin, Ireland},
 doi = {10.1609/icaps.v36i1.42889},
 isbn = {ISSN 2334-0843},
 month = {6},
 number = {1},
 pages = {703-707},
 publisher = {AAAI Press},
 title = {Per-Domain Generalizing Policies: On Learning Efficient and Robust Q-Value Functions},
 url = {https://ojs.aaai.org/index.php/ICAPS/article/view/42889},
 volume = {36},
 year = {2026}
}

@article{meinelWhatAreAISystems2026,
 author = {Philip Meinel and Kevin Baum and Holger Hermanns and Emily Pöppelmann and Markus Langer and Anne Lauber-Ronsberg},
 doi = {10.1016/j.clsr.2026.106373},
 journal = {Computer Law & Security Review},
 number = {106373},
 pages = {1-12},
 publisher = {Elsevier},
 title = {What are AI systems? Rethinking the core definition in the EU AI Act},
 url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212473X26001148},
 volume = {62},
 year = {2026}
}

@article{meyerPGTGProcedurallyGeneratedGridBased2026,
 author = {Joshua Meyer and Felix Maurice Kuntz and Verena Wolf and Jörg Hoffmann and Timo P. Gros},
 journal = {Reinforcement Learning Journal},
 pages = {},
 title = {PGTG: Procedurally Generated Grid-Based Traffic Gym},
 url = {https://rlj.cs.umass.edu/2026/papers/Paper32.pdf},
 volume = {7},
 year = {2026}
}

@inproceedings{mullerTowardAGeneralFramework2026,
 author = {Müller, Nicola J. and Rudolph, Naya and Taitler, Ayal and Gros, Timo P.},
 booktitle = {Workshop on Planning in the Era of LLMs at ICAPS-26},
 title = {Toward a General Framework for Evaluating Per-Domain Generalization Using LLMs, Theorem Provers, and Statistical Model Checking},
 url = {https://openreview.net/pdf?id=MLnzKKBdT4},
 year = {2026}
}

@inproceedings{mullerLearningPerDomainGeneralizingPolicies2025,
 author = {Nicola J. Müller and Moritz Oster and Timo P. Gros},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the Ninth Workshop on Bridging the Gap Between AI Planning and (Reinforcement) Learning (PRL @ ICAPS 2025). Workshop on Bridging the Gap Between AI Planning and Reinforcement Learning (PRL-2025), located at ICAPS'25, November 10, Melbourne, Australia},
 month = {11},
 publisher = {AAAI Press},
 title = {Learning Per-Domain Generalizing Policies Using Offline Reinforcement Learning},
 url = {https://prl-theworkshop.github.io/prl2025-icaps/papers/11.pdf},
 year = {2025}
}

@inproceedings{grosPyDSMCStatisticalModelChecking2025,
 author = {Timo P. Gros and Arnd Hartmanns and Ivo Hoese and Joshua Meyer and Nicola J. Müller and Verena Wolf},
 booktitle = {Quantitative Evaluation of Systems and Formal Modeling and Analysis of Timed Systems - Second International Joint Conference, Proceedings. International Joint Conference on Quantitative Evaluation of Systems and Formal Modeling and Analysis of Timed Systems (QEST+FORMATS-2025), August 26-28, Aarhus, Denmark},
 doi = {10.1007/978-3-032-05792-1_8},
 editor = {Pavithra Prabhakar and Andrea Vandin},
 isbn = {978-3-032-05791-4},
 month = {10},
 pages = {134-156},
 publisher = {Springer Nature, Switzerland},
 series = {Lecture Notes in Computer Science, LNCS},
 title = {PyDSMC: Statistical Model Checking for Neural Agents Using the Gymnasium Interface},
 url = {https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-032-05792-1_8},
 volume = {16143},
 year = {2025}
}

@inproceedings{grosVisualAnalysisOfAction2025,
 author = {Timo P. Gros and David Groß and Julius Kamp and Stefan Gumhold and Jörg Hoffmann},
 booktitle = {World Conference on Explainable Artificial Intelligence. xAI: World Conference on Explainable Artificial Intelligence (xAI-2025), July 9-11, Istanbul, Turkey},
 month = {10},
 publisher = {Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Heidelberg},
 title = {Visual Analysis of Action Policy Behavior: A Case Study in Grid-World Driving},
 year = {2025}
}

@inproceedings{eniserUsingActionPolicyTestingIn2025,
 author = {Hasan Ferit Eniser and Songtuan Lin and Nicola J. Müller and Anastasia Isychev and Valentin Wüstholz and Isabel Valera and Jörg Hoffmann and Maria Christakis},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the Eighteenth International Symposium on Combinatorial Search. International Symposium on Combinatorial Search (SoCS-2025), August 12-15, Scotland, United Kingdom},
 doi = {10.1609/socs.v18i1.35990},
 editor = {Maxim Likhachev and Hana Rudová and Enrico Scala},
 isbn = {13 978-1-57735-901-2},
 month = {8},
 pages = {181-185},
 publisher = {AAAI Press, Washington, DC, USA},
 title = {Using Action-Policy Testing in RL to Reduce the Number of Bugs},
 url = {https://ojs.aaai.org/index.php/SOCS/article/view/35990},
 volume = {18},
 year = {2025}
}

@inproceedings{bingStructuralCausalBottleneckModels2025,
 author = {Simon Bing and Jonas Wahl and Jakob Runge},
 booktitle = {UAI 2025 Workshop on Causal Abstractions and Representations. Causal Abstractions and Representations (CAR), located at UAI 2025, July 25, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil},
 month = {6},
 publisher = {OpenReview},
 title = {Structural Causal Bottleneck Models},
 url = {https://openreview.net/forum?id=EFNvKMSITB},
 year = {2025}
}

@article{araizaillanARoadmapForResponsible2025,
 author = {Dejanira Araiza-Illan and Kevin Baum and Helen Beebee and Raja Chatila and Sarah Moth-Lund Christensen and Simon Coghlan and Emily Collins and S.Kate Conroy and Alcino Cunha and Anna Dobrosovestnova and Hein Duijf and Vanessa Evers and Michael Fisher and Nico Hochgeschwender and Nadin Kökciyan and Séverin Lemaignan and Francisco Rodriguez-Lera and Sara Ljungblad and Martin Magnusson and Masoumeh Mansouri and Michael Milford and AJung Moon and Thomas M. Powers and Pericle Salvini and Teresa Scantamburlo and Nick Schuster and Marija Slavkovik and Ufuk Topcu and Daniel Vanegas and Andrzej Wasowski and Yi Yang},
 doi = {10.1109/MRA.2025.3620148},
 journal = {IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine},
 number = {4},
 pages = {12-24},
 publisher = {IEEE},
 title = {A Roadmap for Responsible Robotics: Promoting Human Agency and Collaborative Efforts},
 url = {https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/11236462/authors#authors},
 volume = {32},
 year = {2025}
}

@inproceedings{baumDisentanglingAIAlignmentA2025,
 author = {Kevin Baum},
 booktitle = {AISoLA 2024. International Conference on Bridging the Gap between AI and Reality (AiSoLA-2024)},
 doi = {10.48550/arXiv.2506.06286},
 publisher = {Springer NAture Switzerland},
 title = {Disentangling AI Alignment: A Structured Taxonomy Beyond Safety and Ethics},
 url = {https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-032-01377-4_8},
 year = {2025}
}

@inproceedings{baumJustificationsForDemocratizingAI2025,
 author = {Kevin Baum and Andre Steingrüber},
 booktitle = {AISoLA 2025. International Conference on Bridging the Gap between AI and Reality (AiSoLA-2025)},
 publisher = {Springer Nature Switzerland},
 title = {Justifications for Democratizing AI Alignment and Their Prospects},
 url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.19548},
 year = {2025}
}

@inproceedings{langerOnTheComplexitiesOf2025,
 author = {Markus Langer and Veronika Lazar and Kevin Baum},
 booktitle = {International Conference on Bridging the Gap between AI and Reality. International Conference on Bridging the Gap between AI and Reality (AiSoLA-2025)},
 pages = {160-169},
 publisher = {Springer Nature Switzerland},
 title = {On the Complexities of Testing for Compliance with Human Oversight Requirements in AI Regulation},
 url = {https://www.dfki.de/fileadmin/user_upload/import/16858_978-3-032-07132-3.pdf},
 year = {2025}
}

@article{schlickerHowDoWeAssess2025,
 author = {Nadine Schlicker and Kevin Baum and Alarith Ude and Sarah Sterz and Martin C. Hirsch and Markus Langer},
 editor = {Matthieu J. Guitton},
 journal = {Computers in Human Behavior},
 pages = {1-19},
 publisher = {Elsevier},
 title = {How do we assess the trustworthiness of AI? Introducing the trustworthiness assessment model (TrAM)},
 url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563225001189},
 volume = {170},
 year = {2025}
}

@inproceedings{brouillardTheLandscapeOfCausal2025,
 author = {Philippe Brouillard and Chandler Squires and Jonas Wahl and Konrad Körding and Karen Sachs and Alexandre Drouin and Dhanya Sridhar},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the Fourth Conference on Causal Learning and Reasoning. Conference on Causal Learning and Reasoning (CLeaR-2025)},
 organization = {PMLR},
 pages = {834-873},
 publisher = {MLResearchPress},
 title = {The Landscape of Causal Discovery Data: Grounding Causal Discovery in Real-World Applications},
 url = {https://proceedings.mlr.press/v275/brouillard25a},
 volume = {275},
 year = {2025}
}

@inproceedings{hermanUnitlessUnrestrictedMarkovConsistentSCM2025,
 author = {Rebecca J Herman and Jonas Wahl and Urmi Ninad and Jakob Runge},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the Fourth Conference on Causal Learning and Reasoning. Conference on Causal Learning and Reasoning (CLeaR-2025)},
 pages = {1506-1531},
 publisher = {MLResearchPress},
 title = {Unitless Unrestricted Markov-Consistent SCM Generation: Better Benchmark Datasets for Causal Discovery},
 url = {https://proceedings.mlr.press/v275/herman25a.html},
 volume = {275},
 year = {2025}
}

@inproceedings{wahlSeparationBasedDistanceMeasuresFor2025,
 author = {Jonas Wahl and Jakob Runge},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of The 28th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Statistics. International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Statistics (AISTATS-2025), May 3-5, Mai Khao, Thailand},
 pages = {3412-3420},
 publisher = {Proceedings of Machine Learning Research},
 title = {Separation-Based Distance Measures for Causal Graphs},
 url = {https://proceedings.mlr.press/v258/wahl25b.html},
 volume = {258},
 year = {2025}
}

@inproceedings{ajanoviBridgingTheGapBetween2025,
 author = {Zlatan Ajanovi and Timo P. Gros and Floris Den Hengst and Daniel Holler and Harsha Kokel and Ayal Taitler},
 booktitle = {AAAI 2025 Workshop Proceedings (PRL Workshop). Workshop on Bridging the Gap Between AI Planning and Reinforcement Learning (PRL-2025), February 25},
 publisher = {AAAI Press},
 title = {Bridging the Gap Between AI Planning and Reinforcement Learning},
 url = {https://research.ibm.com/publications/bridging-the-gap-between-ai-planning-and-reinforcement-learning},
 year = {2025}
}

@inproceedings{grosPerDomainGeneralizingPoliciesOn2025,
 author = {Timo P. Gros and Nicola J. Müller and Daniel Fiser and Isabel Valera and Verena Wolf and Jörg Hoffmann},
 booktitle = {The 35th International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling. International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling (ICAPS-2025), November 9-14, Melbourne, Australia},
 publisher = {AAAI Press},
 title = {Per-Domain Generalizing Policies: On Validation Instances and Scaling Behavior},
 url = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15314878},
 year = {2025}
}

@article{schneiderMotionPrimitivesAsThe2024,
 author = {Tristan Schneider and Matheus V. A. Pedrosa and Timo P. Gros and Verena Wolf and Kathrin Flaßkamp},
 doi = {10.1109/TITS.2024.3436530},
 journal = {IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems},
 month = {9},
 number = {11},
 pages = {17852-17864},
 publisher = {IEEE},
 title = {Motion Primitives as the Action Space of Deep Q-Learning for Planning in Autonomous Driving},
 volume = {25},
 year = {2024}
}