Robot Manipulation and Learning

Robot Manipulation and Learning is a research topic within Control and Systems Engineering. Science Explorer counts 33k research works in it since 1956. 9.8% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on robotic grasping, learning from demonstration, deep learning for object pose estimation, human-robot collaboration, and sensor-based robot systems. It explores topics such as dynamical movement primitives, impedance control, and safe interaction between humans and robots.

Robot Learning
Grasping
Deep Learning
Human-Robot Collaboration
Object Pose Estimation
Dynamical Movement Primitives
Impedance Control
3D Object Recognition
Sensor-Based Robot Systems
Safe Human-Robot Interaction

Research works: 33k
In the world top 10%: 3.2k
Top-10% rate: 9.8%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25: +42%
Largest producer: China

Robot Manipulation and Learning

Which countries lead Robot Manipulation and Learning research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (3.1k and 1.2k works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

1 China 3.1k works
2 United States 1.2k works
3 Japan 705 works
4 Germany 536 works
5 United Kingdom 373 works
6 Italy 368 works
7 India 334 works
8 South Korea 281 works
9 France 184 works
10 Canada 173 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.

China3,079 · 42.6%United States1,202 · 16.6%Japan705 · 9.7%Germany536 · 7.4%6 others listed1,712 · 23.7%

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

Which institutions lead Robot Manipulation and Learning research?

By volume in 2022-now, Chinese Academy of Sciences publishes the most Robot Manipulation and Learning research, followed by Harbin Institute of Technology and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

By volume, 2022-now

1 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 136 works
2 Harbin Institute of TechnologyChina 126 works
3 Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityChina 107 works
4 Tsinghua UniversityChina 92 works
5 Zhejiang UniversityChina 72 works
6 Technical University of MunichGermany 72 works
7 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 68 works
8 Beihang UniversityChina 63 works
9 Helmholtz Association of German Research CentresGermany 62 works
10 Huazhong University of Science and TechnologyChina 61 works

Who are the leading researchers in Robot Manipulation and Learning?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Robot Manipulation and Learning include Yoshua Bengio, Geoffrey E. Hinton and Jian Sun.

1 Yoshua Bengio Canada 476k citations
2 Geoffrey E. Hinton Canada 454k citations
3 Jian Sun 281k citations
4 Wei Huang China 267k citations
5 Xiaogang Wang China 260k citations
6 Yann LeCun United States 256k citations
7 Li Fei-Fei United States 225k citations
8 Kai You Wang China 224k citations
9 Ilya Sutskever Canada 219k citations
10 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 Robot Manipulation and Learning?

The most cited paper in Robot Manipulation and Learning is "Real-Time Obstacle Avoidance for Manipulators and Mobile Robots" (Oussama Khatib, 1986), with 7,738 citations. Next come "Probabilistic roadmaps for path planning in high-dimensional configuration spaces" (6,398) and "The coordination of arm movements: an experimentally confirmed mathematical model" (4,444).

Most cited papers
#	Paper	Released	Citations
1	Real-Time Obstacle Avoidance for Manipulators and Mobile Robots Oussama Khatib · The International Journal of Robotics Research	Mar 1986	7,738
2	Probabilistic roadmaps for path planning in high-dimensional configuration spaces Lydia E. Kavraki, P. Švestka, J.-C. Latombe et al. · IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation Open access	1996	6,398
3	The coordination of arm movements: an experimentally confirmed mathematical model Tamar Flash, N. Hogan · Journal of Neuroscience Open access	Jul 1985	4,444
4	The dynamic window approach to collision avoidance D. Fox, Wolfram Burgard, Sebastian Thrun · IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine	Mar 1997	3,791
5	Impedance Control: An Approach to Manipulation: Part I—Theory Neville Hogan · Journal of Dynamic Systems Measurement and Control	Mar 1985	3,669

All 98 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Robot Manipulation and Learning research done?

The largest centres of Robot Manipulation and Learning research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Shanghai (China), Tokyo (Japan) and Nanjing (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Genoa.

Largest cities, 2022-now

1 BeijingChina 592 works
2 ShanghaiChina 292 works
3 TokyoJapan 259 works
4 NanjingChina 153 works
5 WuhanChina 152 works
6 HarbinChina 150 works
7 HangzhouChina 149 works
8 GuangzhouChina 147 works
9 ShenzhenChina 125 works
10 SeoulSouth Korea 124 works

Where it is the local speciality

GenoaIT · 63.5 works13×

← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Robot Manipulation and Learning than the world average.

See Robot Manipulation and Learning on the map

Where is the best place to study Robot Manipulation and Learning?

Among universities, judged by research, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and ETH Zurich 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.

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.

#	University	Score	Top 10%	Specialisation	Works	Growth
1	Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityChina	79.1	31.0%	4.0×	27	+186.7%
2	École Polytechnique Fédérale de LausanneSwitzerland	74.4	24.4%	7.7×	25	+56.8%
3	ETH ZurichSwitzerland	73.3	25.8%	4.5×	24	+17.4%
4	Carnegie Mellon UniversityUnited States	72.4	15.9%	18.0×	58	+20.0%
5	Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyUnited States	71.7	23.0%	6.8×	37	-1.3%
6	Chinese University of Hong KongChina	69.4	22.3%	5.2×	29	+34.3%
7	Tsinghua UniversityChina	67.2	15.6%	5.1×	92	+35.1%
8	Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityChina	67.0	14.2%	4.8×	107	+43.6%
9	Technical University of MunichGermany	66.5	12.5%	10.4×	72	+58.9%
10	Harbin Institute of TechnologyChina	65.3	10.7%	9.9×	126	+23.2%
11	Huazhong University of Science and TechnologyChina	65.3	19.4%	4.3×	61	+82.9%
12	Stanford UniversityUnited States	64.9	17.6%	2.5×	29	+14.1%
13	KTH Royal Institute of TechnologySweden	63.7	17.6%	8.8×	26	+6.7%
14	South China University of TechnologyChina	63.5	15.4%	7.1×	60	+62.4%
15	Columbia UniversityUnited States	62.0	26.6%	1.5×	13	+66.4%
16	National University of SingaporeSingapore	61.3	14.7%	4.0×	37	+82.5%
17	University of Hong KongChina	60.4	14.4%	3.3×	24	+44.7%
18	Zhejiang UniversityChina	60.3	12.2%	3.5×	72	+142.4%
19	University of California, BerkeleyUnited States	60.2	16.8%	4.6×	34	+1.6%
20	University of NottinghamUnited Kingdom	60.0	26.1%	2.2×	13	+80.0%
21	Georgia Institute of TechnologyUnited States	59.8	16.8%	6.4×	31	+21.2%
22	Khalifa University of Science and TechnologyUnited Arab Emirates	59.7	22.5%	5.4×	10	+147.3%
23	Nanyang Technological UniversitySingapore	59.3	11.7%	5.1×	31	+71.6%
24	Beijing Institute of TechnologyChina	58.6	14.4%	6.1×	56	+110.9%
25	University of PatrasGreece	57.9	24.5%	8.0×	17	+2.9%
26	Lanzhou UniversityChina	57.3	29.3%	1.6×	9	+355.2%
27	University of Science and Technology of ChinaChina	56.8	17.6%	3.4×	31	+26.9%
28	Southeast UniversityChina	56.2	14.2%	3.8×	44	+141.8%
29	University of California San DiegoUnited States	55.7	21.4%	2.1×	16	+101.3%
30	Wuhan University of TechnologyChina	55.2	15.2%	5.2×	33	+84.0%
31	Dalian University of TechnologyChina	55.1	14.4%	4.4×	32	+108.6%
32	Southern University of Science and TechnologyChina	54.9	13.6%	6.2×	26	+308.9%
33	Northeastern UniversityChina	54.8	15.3%	5.1×	36	+85.4%
34	Peking UniversityChina	54.7	16.1%	2.2×	35	+330.0%
35	Delft University of TechnologyNetherlands	54.5	15.5%	4.4×	23	+31.8%
36	Imperial College LondonUnited Kingdom	54.2	15.5%	3.6×	28	-6.3%
37	Tongji UniversityChina	54.1	17.6%	2.5×	30	+150.7%
38	Scuola Superiore Sant'AnnaItaly	54.1	13.6%	23.1×	17	+28.1%
39	Beihang UniversityChina	53.6	9.1%	7.3×	63	+84.7%
40	Hong Kong University of Science and TechnologyChina	53.6	12.9%	5.2×	17	+99.8%
41	Singapore University of Technology and DesignSingapore	52.0	11.7%	17.3×	12	+27.8%
42	Harvard UniversityUnited States	50.1	18.2%	0.4×	9	+46.7%
43	University of the West of EnglandUnited Kingdom	46.0	19.5%	10.4×	9	-4.4%
44	The University of TokyoJapan	44.0	5.4%	5.9×	57	-8.3%
45	University of Technology SydneyAustralia	43.4	12.2%	3.6×	12	+37.2%
46	Waseda UniversityJapan	42.5	6.3%	11.1×	29	+8.8%
47	Ritsumeikan UniversityJapan	37.6	11.6%	18.3×	25	-22.0%
48	Worcester Polytechnic InstituteUnited States	35.1	7.4%	13.5×	10	-4.6%
49	University of Electro-CommunicationsJapan	34.8	3.5%	17.5×	16	+14.3%
50	Kyushu Institute of TechnologyJapan	34.5	2.4%	15.3×	14	+104.9%

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 Robot Manipulation and Learning, country by country

Is Robot Manipulation and Learning research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 42% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Robot Manipulation and Learning.

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 Robot Manipulation and Learning as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.036% in 2024.

Fractional works of Robot Manipulation and Learning 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.

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.

Discussion

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Which countries lead Robot Manipulation and Learning research?

By volume, 2022-now

How concentrated that is

Which institutions lead Robot Manipulation and Learning research?

By volume, 2022-now

Who are the leading researchers in Robot Manipulation and Learning?

What are the most cited papers in Robot Manipulation and Learning?

Where is Robot Manipulation and Learning research done?

Largest cities, 2022-now

Where it is the local speciality

Where is the best place to study Robot Manipulation and Learning?

Is Robot Manipulation and Learning research growing?

Its share of all research

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Which topics inside it are moving

Related research

Discussion