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Topic · Biomedical Engineering

Soft Robotics and Applications

Soft Robotics and Applications is a research topic within Biomedical Engineering. Science Explorer counts 28k research works in it since 1951. 9.8% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the design, fabrication, and control of soft robotic systems, with applications in areas such as minimally invasive surgery, bioinspired robotics, continuum robots, and pneumatic actuators. The research covers topics such as kinematic modeling, robotic manipulators, and biomedical applications of soft robotics.

  • Soft Robotics
  • Bioinspired Robotics
  • Continuum Robots
  • Minimally Invasive Surgery
  • Robotic Manipulators
  • Pneumatic Actuators
  • Kinematic Modeling
  • Surgical Robotics
  • Flexible Actuators
  • Biomedical Applications
Research works
28k
fractional, since 1951
In the world top 10%
2.7k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.8%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+42%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
47% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Soft Robotics and Applications

Which countries lead Soft Robotics and Applications research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (3.5k and 1.2k works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 3.5k works
  2. 2 United States 1.2k works
  3. 3 Japan 760 works
  4. 4 United Kingdom 387 works
  5. 5 India 322 works
  6. 6 Germany 321 works
  7. 7 South Korea 285 works
  8. 8 Italy 280 works
  9. 9 France 193 works
  10. 10 Canada 166 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: 47.0%United States: 16.3%Japan: 10.3%United Kingdom: 5.2%6 others listed: 21.2%47%largest
China3,473 · 47.0%United States1,201 · 16.3%Japan760 · 10.3%United Kingdom387 · 5.2%6 others listed1,566 · 21.2%

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

Which institutions lead Soft Robotics and Applications research?

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

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Harbin Institute of TechnologyChina 172 works
  2. 2 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 151 works
  3. 3 Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityChina 121 works
  4. 4 Tsinghua UniversityChina 81 works
  5. 5 Zhejiang UniversityChina 80 works
  6. 6 Chinese University of Hong KongChina 76 works
  7. 7 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 71 works
  8. 8 Beihang UniversityChina 65 works
  9. 9 Beijing Institute of TechnologyChina 58 works
  10. 10 Tianjin UniversityChina 53 works

Who are the leading researchers in Soft Robotics and Applications?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Soft Robotics and Applications include Zhong Lin Wang, George M. Whitesides and Wei Huang.

  1. 1 Zhong Lin Wang United States 491k citations
  2. 2 George M. Whitesides United States 267k citations
  3. 3 Wei Huang China 267k citations
  4. 4 Li Fei-Fei United States 225k citations
  5. 5 Kai You Wang China 224k citations
  6. 6 Lei Jiang China 214k citations
  7. 7 Hua Zhang Singapore 196k citations
  8. 8 Martin B. Leon United States 190k citations
  9. 9 Hongjie Dai United States 189k 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 Soft Robotics and Applications?

The most cited paper in Soft Robotics and Applications is "Design, fabrication and control of soft robots" (Daniela L. Rus, Michael Thomas Tolley, 2015), with 5,797 citations. Next come "Hybrid Position/Force Control of Manipulators" (3,018) and "Impedance Control: An Approach to Manipulation" (2,938).

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 Hybrid Position/Force Control of Manipulators Marc H. Raibert, John J. Craig · Journal of Dynamic Systems Measurement and Control Jun 1981 3,018
3 Impedance Control: An Approach to Manipulation Neville Hogan Conference paper Jul 1984 2,938
4 Manipulability of Robotic Mechanisms Tsuneo Yoshikawa · The International Journal of Robotics Research Jun 1985 2,581
5 Small-scale soft-bodied robot with multimodal locomotion Wenqi Hu, Guo Zhan Lum, Massimo Mastrangeli et al. · Nature 24 Jan 2018 2,392
All 99 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Soft Robotics and Applications research done?

The largest centres of Soft Robotics and Applications research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Shanghai (China), Tokyo (Japan) and Harbin (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Qinhuangdao and Genoa.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 609 works
  2. 2 ShanghaiChina 298 works
  3. 3 TokyoJapan 267 works
  4. 4 HarbinChina 220 works
  5. 5 NanjingChina 177 works
  6. 6 TianjinChina 168 works
  7. 7 HangzhouChina 158 works
  8. 8 ShenzhenChina 147 works
  9. 9 LondonUnited Kingdom 141 works
  10. 10 GuangzhouChina 140 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. QinhuangdaoCN · 35.9 works10×
  2. GenoaIT · 38.5 works7.9×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

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

See Soft Robotics and Applications on the map

Where is the best place to study Soft Robotics and Applications?

Among universities, judged by research, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 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.

0%10%20%30%mean 19.96%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →ETH ZurichÉcole Polytechnique …University of MacauChinese University o…
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
1Chinese University of Hong KongChina 74.815.9%13.7×76 +53.4%
2École Polytechnique Fédérale de LausanneSwitzerland 74.523.1%9.2×29 +59.3%
3ETH ZurichSwitzerland 70.526.6%4.4×23 +46.0%
4University of MacauChina 68.821.4%7.8×19 +213.7%
5Harbin Institute of TechnologyChina 67.813.9%13.8×172 +35.2%
6Scuola Superiore Sant'AnnaItaly 65.415.0%43.0×31 +30.2%
7Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityChina 64.914.1%5.5×121 +27.3%
8Nanyang Technological UniversitySingapore 64.523.9%4.0×24 +27.0%
9Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyUnited States 64.221.1%5.5×29 +4.7%
10Khalifa University of Science and TechnologyUnited Arab Emirates 63.424.6%6.3×12 +115.4%

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 Soft Robotics and Applications, country by country

Is Soft Robotics and Applications research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 42% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Soft Robotics and Applications.

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 Soft Robotics and Applications as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.032% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%0.060%Soft Robotics and Applications0.039% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Soft Robotics and Applications 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%Soft Robotics and Applications9.7% 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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