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Topic · Condensed Matter Physics

Micro and Nano Robotics

Micro and Nano Robotics is a research topic within Condensed Matter Physics. Science Explorer counts 19k research works in it since 1950. 9.9% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the hydrodynamics, self-propulsion, and collective behavior of active matter, including swimming microorganisms, colloidal particles, and nanomotors. It covers a wide range of topics such as biomedical applications, catalytic nanomotors, fluid dynamics, and the interactions of active particles in complex environments.

  • Hydrodynamics
  • Micro/Nanomotors
  • Self-Propulsion
  • Colloidal Particles
  • Swimming Microorganisms
  • Bacterial Motion
  • Biomedical Applications
  • Catalytic Nanomotors
  • Fluid Dynamics
  • Collective Behavior
Research works
19k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
1.9k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+29%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
40% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Micro and Nano Robotics

Which countries lead Micro and Nano Robotics research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (2k and 1.1k works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 2k works
  2. 2 United States 1.1k works
  3. 3 Japan 344 works
  4. 4 Germany 333 works
  5. 5 India 316 works
  6. 6 United Kingdom 274 works
  7. 7 France 268 works
  8. 8 South Korea 155 works
  9. 9 Italy 141 works
  10. 10 Spain 124 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 40.3%United States: 21.1%Japan: 6.8%Germany: 6.6%6 others listed: 25.2%40%largest
China2,045 · 40.3%United States1,067 · 21.1%Japan344 · 6.8%Germany333 · 6.6%6 others listed1,279 · 25.2%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Micro and Nano Robotics research?

By volume in 2022-now, Chinese Academy of Sciences publishes the most Micro and Nano Robotics research, followed by Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Harbin Institute of Technology.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 137 works
  2. 2 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 132 works
  3. 3 Harbin Institute of TechnologyChina 87 works
  4. 4 Zhejiang UniversityChina 57 works
  5. 5 Max Planck SocietyGermany 57 works
  6. 6 Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityChina 52 works
  7. 7 Tsinghua UniversityChina 45 works
  8. 8 Beihang UniversityChina 42 works
  9. 9 ETH ZurichSwitzerland 41 works
  10. 10 University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 35 works

Who are the leading researchers in Micro and Nano Robotics?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Micro and Nano Robotics include Zhong Lin Wang, Kostya S. Novoselov and Yury G. Gogotsi.

  1. 1 Zhong Lin Wang United States 491k citations
  2. 2 Kostya S. Novoselov United Kingdom 331k citations
  3. 3 Yury G. Gogotsi United States 313k citations
  4. 4 Róbert Langer United States 303k citations
  5. 5 George M. Whitesides United States 267k citations
  6. 6 Wei Huang China 267k citations
  7. 7 Ben Zhong Tang China 261k citations
  8. 8 Lei Jiang China 214k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Micro and Nano Robotics?

The most cited paper in Micro and Nano Robotics is "Design, fabrication and control of soft robots" (Daniela L. Rus, Michael Thomas Tolley, 2015), with 5,797 citations. Next come "Equation of State for Nonattracting Rigid Spheres" (5,290) and "Flocking for Multi-Agent Dynamic Systems: Algorithms and Theory" (5,074).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Design, fabrication and control of soft robots Daniela L. Rus, Michael Thomas Tolley · Nature 26 May 2015 5,797
2 Equation of State for Nonattracting Rigid Spheres Norman F. Carnahan, K.E. Starling · The Journal of Chemical Physics 15 Jul 1969 5,290
3 Flocking for Multi-Agent Dynamic Systems: Algorithms and Theory Reza Olfati‐Saber · IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control Mar 2006 5,074
4 Hydrodynamics of soft active matter Maria Cristina Marchetti, Jean‐François Joanny, Sriraṁ Ramaswamy et al. · Reviews of Modern Physics 19 Jul 2013 4,254
5 Active Particles in Complex and Crowded Environments Clemens Bechinger, Roberto Di Leonardo, Hartmut Löwen et al. · Reviews of Modern Physics Open access 23 Nov 2016 3,049
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Micro and Nano Robotics research done?

The largest centres of Micro and Nano Robotics research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Shanghai (China), Paris (France) and Tokyo (Japan). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Göttingen and Dresden.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 367 works
  2. 2 ShanghaiChina 136 works
  3. 3 ParisFrance 124 works
  4. 4 TokyoJapan 111 works
  5. 5 HarbinChina 111 works
  6. 6 HangzhouChina 110 works
  7. 7 NanjingChina 110 works
  8. 8 GuangzhouChina 103 works
  9. 9 ShenzhenChina 101 works
  10. 10 Xi'anChina 77 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. GöttingenDE · 24.2 works8.9×
  2. DresdenDE · 40.6 works8.0×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Micro and Nano Robotics than the world average.

See Micro and Nano Robotics on the map

Where is the best place to study Micro and Nano Robotics?

Among universities, judged by research, ETH Zurich, Harbin Institute of Technology and Anhui Jianzhu University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%60%mean 25.79%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Anhui Jianzhu Univer…ETH ZurichChinese University o…Harbin Institute of …
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1ETH ZurichSwitzerland 63.422.4%11.4×41 +33.8%
2Harbin Institute of TechnologyChina 63.016.5%10.1×87 +41.4%
3Anhui Jianzhu UniversityChina 56.856.0%18.9×9 -
4Chinese University of Hong KongChina 55.821.3%8.2×31 -0.7%
5University of Hong KongChina 54.820.3%5.0×24 +98.4%
6University of MacauChina 54.226.7%8.5×14 +768.4%
7Koç UniversityTürkiye 54.238.1%11.2×9 +57.3%
8Zhejiang UniversityChina 53.214.1%4.1×57 +110.1%
9Chinese University of Hong Kong, ShenzhenChina 52.825.7%16.7×16 +242.8%
10City University of Hong KongChina 52.316.8%7.1×21 +77.9%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Micro and Nano Robotics, country by country

Is Micro and Nano Robotics research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 29% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Micro and Nano Robotics.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Micro and Nano Robotics as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.023% in 2024.

still counting0.010%0.020%0.030%Micro and Nano Robotics0.025% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Micro and Nano Robotics over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Micro and Nano Robotics9.8% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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