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Topic · Biomedical Engineering

Robotic Locomotion and Control

Robotic Locomotion and Control is a research topic within Biomedical Engineering. Science Explorer counts 21k research works in it since 1956. 9.7% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the biomechanics and control strategies for bipedal locomotion in robots and animals. It covers topics such as dynamic walking, central pattern generators, passive-dynamic walkers, quadruped robots, humanoid robots, and the control of locomotion. The research aims to understand and replicate the complex mechanisms involved in bipedal movement.

  • Bipedal Locomotion
  • Dynamic Walking
  • Central Pattern Generators
  • Legged Robots
  • Passive-Dynamic Walkers
  • Quadruped Robots
  • Humanoid Robots
  • Control of Locomotion
  • Gait Generation
  • Robotics Biomechanics
Research works
21k
fractional, since 1956
In the world top 10%
2k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.7%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+17%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
46% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Robotic Locomotion and Control

Which countries lead Robotic Locomotion and Control research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (1.6k and 561 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 1.6k works
  2. 2 United States 561 works
  3. 3 Japan 518 works
  4. 4 India 169 works
  5. 5 South Korea 135 works
  6. 6 Germany 133 works
  7. 7 United Kingdom 108 works
  8. 8 Italy 100 works
  9. 9 France 67 works
  10. 10 Russia 67 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: 46.1%United States: 16.3%Japan: 15.0%India: 4.9%6 others listed: 17.7%46%largest
China1,592 · 46.1%United States561 · 16.3%Japan518 · 15.0%India169 · 4.9%6 others listed611 · 17.7%

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

Which institutions lead Robotic Locomotion and Control research?

By volume in 2022-now, Harbin Institute of Technology publishes the most Robotic Locomotion and Control research, followed by Beijing Institute of Technology and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Harbin Institute of TechnologyChina 85 works
  2. 2 Beijing Institute of TechnologyChina 66 works
  3. 3 Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityChina 53 works
  4. 4 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 43 works
  5. 5 The University of TokyoJapan 40 works
  6. 6 Zhejiang UniversityChina 37 works
  7. 7 Tsinghua UniversityChina 30 works
  8. 8 Tohoku UniversityJapan 29 works
  9. 9 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 28 works
  10. 10 Beihang UniversityChina 28 works

Who are the leading researchers in Robotic Locomotion and Control?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Robotic Locomotion and Control include Jun Wang, Lei Jiang and Trevor J. Darrell.

  1. 1 Jun Wang China 340k citations
  2. 2 Lei Jiang China 214k citations
  3. 3 Trevor J. Darrell United States 206k citations
  4. 4 Hua Zhang Singapore 196k citations
  5. 5 Jürgen Schmidhuber Switzerland 188k citations
  6. 6 Kalyanmoy Deb United States 171k citations
  7. 7 Jitendra Malik United States 170k citations
  8. 8 Bernhard Schölkopf Germany 148k 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 Robotic Locomotion and Control?

The most cited paper in Robotic Locomotion and Control is "Passive Dynamic Walking" (Tad McGeer, 1990), with 3,392 citations. Next come "Legged Robots That Balance" (2,755) and "Minimum snap trajectory generation and control for quadrotors" (2,396).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Passive Dynamic Walking Tad McGeer · The International Journal of Robotics Research Apr 1990 3,392
2 Legged Robots That Balance Marc H. Raibert, Ernest R. Tello · IEEE Expert Nov 1986 2,755
3 Minimum snap trajectory generation and control for quadrotors Daniel Mellinger, Vijay Kumar Conference paper May 2011 2,396
4 The vector field histogram-fast obstacle avoidance for mobile robots J. Borenstein, Yoram Koren · IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation Jun 1991 2,303
5 Series elastic actuators Gill A. Pratt, Matthew M. Williamson Conference paper 19 Nov 2002 2,220
All 99 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Robotic Locomotion and Control research done?

The largest centres of Robotic Locomotion and Control research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Tokyo (Japan), Shanghai (China) and Harbin (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. 1 BeijingChina 311 works
  2. 2 TokyoJapan 186 works
  3. 3 ShanghaiChina 133 works
  4. 4 HarbinChina 106 works
  5. 5 HangzhouChina 83 works
  6. 6 NanjingChina 81 works
  7. 7 GuangzhouChina 66 works
  8. 8 WuhanChina 65 works
  9. 9 ShenzhenChina 59 works
  10. 10 Xi'anChina 55 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. GenoaIT · 32.6 works14×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Robotic Locomotion and Control than the world average.

See Robotic Locomotion and Control on the map

Where is the best place to study Robotic Locomotion and Control?

Among universities, judged by research, ETH Zurich, Harbin Institute of Technology and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne 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 22.78%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →ETH ZurichÉcole Polytechnique …Harbin Institute of …Beijing 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 67.644.1%7.4×19 -17.1%
2Harbin Institute of TechnologyChina 62.915.7%14.3×85 +36.8%
3École Polytechnique Fédérale de LausanneSwitzerland 62.331.6%9.4×14 +8.1%
4Beijing Institute of TechnologyChina 55.310.5%15.3×66 +15.0%
5Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyUnited States 54.938.0%4.9×12 -9.9%
6Zhejiang UniversityChina 53.922.0%3.8×37 +114.5%
7Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityChina 52.711.3%5.0×53 +66.6%
8University of Southern CaliforniaUnited States 51.126.7%4.1×13 +113.1%
9Southern University of Science and TechnologyChina 51.012.7%12.1×23 +231.8%
10California Institute of TechnologyUnited States 50.815.2%14.8×19 +48.8%

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 Robotic Locomotion and Control, country by country

Is Robotic Locomotion and Control research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 17% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Robotic Locomotion and Control.

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 Robotic Locomotion and Control as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.017% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%Robotic Locomotion and Control0.019% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Robotic Locomotion and Control 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%Robotic Locomotion and Control9.9% 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.

Questions people ask

Who leads research on robot locomotion?

By volume in 2022-now, Harbin Institute of Technology publishes the most Robotic Locomotion and Control research, followed by Beijing Institute of Technology and Shanghai Jiao Tong University. By volume, China and the United States publish the most (1.6k and 561 works in 2022-now).

All 1,273 questions in the Question Catalogue

Discussion

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