A Review of Intelligent Robotic Cluster Systems: Current Status and Future Directions

Robotic cluster systems have attracted sustained interest in both research and industrial contexts, yet existing surveys often focus on individual subtopics and provide limited guidance on system‐level engineering integration. This review organizes the field around five core functional modules allocation, path planning, information sharing, situational awareness, and formation control and interprets existing studies through two complementary analytical perspectives: internal interaction architecture and external interaction architecture. Following an implementation‐oriented logic, we summarize representative methods, commonly used tools, and fundamental design trade‐offs for each module, and discuss how these components co‐evolve within integrated cluster systems. In addition, a bibliometric analysis based on the cited literature is conducted to reveal publication trends and the evolution of major research themes. Finally, system‐level challenges and future research directions are outlined to support the development of scalable, adaptive, and intelligent robotic cluster systems.