# Collaboration in Multi-Robot Systems: Taxonomy and Survey over Frameworks for Collaboration

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.23898 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.23898/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 25 Mar 2026.

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [MemoGuard: An Adaptive Runtime for Guarding Against Memory Traps in Communication-Limited Robot Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.15589/) (2026)
- [Learning Altruistic Collaboration in Heterogeneous Multi-Team Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.21723/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Collaboration is a central theme in multi-robot systems as tasks and demands increasingly require capabilities that go beyond what any one individual robot possesses. Yet, despite extensive work on cooperative control and coordinated behaviors, the terminology surrounding collective multi-robot interaction remains inconsistent across research communities. In particular, cooperation, coordination, and collaboration are often treated interchangeably, without clearly articulating the differences among them. To address this gap, we propose definitions that distinguish and relate cooperation, coordination, and collaboration in multi-robot systems, highlighting the support of new capabilities in collaborative behaviors, and illustrate these concepts through representative examples. Building on this taxonomy, different frameworks for collaboration are reviewed, and technical challenges and promising future research directions are identified for collaborative multi-robot systems.