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Topic · Mechanical Engineering

Modular Robots and Swarm Intelligence

Modular Robots and Swarm Intelligence is a research topic within Mechanical Engineering. Science Explorer counts 38k 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 focuses on self-reconfigurable robotic systems and modular robotics, exploring topics such as self-reconfiguration, swarm-bots, programmable matter, distributed control, microscale self-assembly, morphogenetic engineering, and collective construction. The research covers a wide range of applications and techniques for creating adaptive and reconfigurable robotic systems.

  • Self-Reconfiguration
  • Modular Robots
  • Self-Assembly
  • Swarm-Bots
  • Programmable Matter
  • Distributed Control
  • Microscale Self-Assembly
  • Morphogenetic Engineering
  • Capillary Forces
  • Collective Construction
Research works
38k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
3.8k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+43%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
36% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Modular Robots and Swarm Intelligence

Which countries lead Modular Robots and Swarm Intelligence research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (2.6k and 1.6k works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 2.6k works
  2. 2 United States 1.6k works
  3. 3 Japan 748 works
  4. 4 India 495 works
  5. 5 Germany 433 works
  6. 6 United Kingdom 385 works
  7. 7 Italy 318 works
  8. 8 France 273 works
  9. 9 South Korea 245 works
  10. 10 Canada 175 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: 36.1%United States: 21.6%Japan: 10.3%India: 6.8%6 others listed: 25.2%36%largest
China2,623 · 36.1%United States1,567 · 21.6%Japan748 · 10.3%India495 · 6.8%6 others listed1,829 · 25.2%

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

Which institutions lead Modular Robots and Swarm Intelligence research?

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

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Harbin Institute of TechnologyChina 124 works
  2. 2 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 122 works
  3. 3 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 115 works
  4. 4 Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityChina 77 works
  5. 5 Tsinghua UniversityChina 72 works
  6. 6 The University of TokyoJapan 62 works
  7. 7 Zhejiang UniversityChina 58 works
  8. 8 Beihang UniversityChina 58 works
  9. 9 Beijing Institute of TechnologyChina 56 works
  10. 10 Southeast UniversityChina 45 works

Who are the leading researchers in Modular Robots and Swarm Intelligence?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Modular Robots and Swarm Intelligence include Zhong Lin Wang, Kostya S. Novoselov and George M. Whitesides.

  1. 1 Zhong Lin Wang United States 491k citations
  2. 2 Kostya S. Novoselov United Kingdom 331k citations
  3. 3 George M. Whitesides United States 267k citations
  4. 4 Wei Huang China 267k citations
  5. 5 Kenji Watanabe Japan 237k citations
  6. 6 Takashi Taniguchi Japan 227k citations
  7. 7 Li Fei-Fei United States 225k 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 Modular Robots and Swarm Intelligence?

The most cited paper in Modular Robots and Swarm Intelligence is "A robust layered control system for a mobile robot" (Rodney A. Brooks, 1986), with 7,785 citations. Next come "Self-Assembly at All Scales" (7,462) and "Design, fabrication and control of soft robots" (5,797).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 A robust layered control system for a mobile robot Rodney A. Brooks · IEEE Journal on Robotics and Automation Open access 1986 7,785
2 Self-Assembly at All Scales George M. Whitesides, Bartosz A. Grzybowski · Science 29 Mar 2002 7,462
3 Design, fabrication and control of soft robots Daniela L. Rus, Michael Thomas Tolley · Nature 26 May 2015 5,797
4 Variable structure systems with sliding modes Vadim I. Utkin · IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control Apr 1977 5,383
5 Flocking for Multi-Agent Dynamic Systems: Algorithms and Theory Reza Olfati‐Saber · IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control Mar 2006 5,074
All 99 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Modular Robots and Swarm Intelligence research done?

The largest centres of Modular Robots and Swarm Intelligence research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Tokyo (Japan), Shanghai (China) and Nanjing (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Salzburg.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 525 works
  2. 2 TokyoJapan 289 works
  3. 3 ShanghaiChina 217 works
  4. 4 NanjingChina 150 works
  5. 5 HarbinChina 149 works
  6. 6 Xi'anChina 130 works
  7. 7 HangzhouChina 114 works
  8. 8 GuangzhouChina 114 works
  9. 9 SeoulSouth Korea 112 works
  10. 10 ShenzhenChina 111 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. SalzburgAT · 27.9 works14×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Modular Robots and Swarm Intelligence than the world average.

See Modular Robots and Swarm Intelligence on the map

Where is the best place to study Modular Robots and Swarm Intelligence?

Among universities, judged by research, ETH Zurich, Harbin Institute of Technology and Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen 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%mean 24.14%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Chinese University o…Chinese University o…ETH ZurichHarbin 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 74.520.9%7.0×39 +25.9%
2Harbin Institute of TechnologyChina 73.419.7%9.4×124 +102.3%
3Chinese University of Hong Kong, ShenzhenChina 73.332.5%10.5×16 +207.3%
4Chinese University of Hong KongChina 72.625.1%4.7×28 +32.2%
5Nanyang Technological UniversitySingapore 71.023.8%5.0×32 +68.2%
6City University of Hong KongChina 66.625.0%3.9×18 +99.4%
7University of MacauChina 64.727.3%5.3×14 +361.0%
8University of Hong KongChina 64.123.3%3.1×23 +202.4%
9Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityChina 63.323.6%3.2×22 +202.5%
10Zhejiang UniversityChina 63.020.2%2.7×58 +119.1%

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 Modular Robots and Swarm Intelligence, country by country

Is Modular Robots and Swarm Intelligence research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 43% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2024. The fastest-growing topics are Modular Robots and Swarm Intelligence.

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 Modular Robots and Swarm Intelligence as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.048% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%0.060%Modular Robots and Swarm Intelligence0.044% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Modular Robots and Swarm Intelligence 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%Modular Robots and Swarm Intelligence9.9% 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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