# Collective Conditioned Reflex: A Bio-Inspired Fast Emergency Reaction Mechanism for Designing Safe Multi-Robot Systems

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2202.11932 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.11932/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 24 Feb 2022.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Offline Imitation Learning with Variational Counterfactual Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.04706/) (2023)

## Abstract (arXiv)

A multi-robot system (MRS) is a group of coordinated robots designed to cooperate with each other and accomplish given tasks. Due to the uncertainties in operating environments, the system may encounter emergencies, such as unobserved obstacles, moving vehicles, and extreme weather. Animal groups such as bee colonies initiate collective emergency reaction behaviors such as bypassing obstacles and avoiding predators, similar to muscle-conditioned reflex which organizes local muscles to avoid hazards in the first response without delaying passage through the brain. Inspired by this, we develop a similar collective conditioned reflex mechanism for multi-robot systems to respond to emergencies. In this study, Collective Conditioned Reflex (CCR), a bio-inspired emergency reaction mechanism, is developed based on animal collective behavior analysis and multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL). The algorithm uses a physical model to determine if the robots are experiencing an emergency; then, rewards for robots involved in the emergency are augmented with corresponding heuristic rewards, which evaluate emergency magnitudes and consequences and decide local robots' participation. CCR is validated on three typical emergency scenarios: textitturbulence, strong wind, and hidden obstacle. Simulation results demonstrate that CCR improves robot teams' emergency reaction capability with faster reaction speed and safer trajectory adjustment compared with baseline methods.