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Topic · Ocean Engineering

Underwater Vehicles and Communication Systems

Underwater Vehicles and Communication Systems is a research topic within Ocean Engineering. Science Explorer counts 41k research works in it since 1950. 10.0% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the research challenges, advancements, and applications in underwater acoustic sensor networks and communication. It covers topics such as propagation models, AUV navigation, localization techniques, energy-efficient routing, underwater gliders, autonomous underwater vehicles, and wireless sensor networks for oceanographic research.

  • Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks
  • Acoustic Communications
  • Underwater Gliders
  • Autonomous Underwater Vehicles
  • Localization Techniques
  • Wireless Sensor Networks
  • Channel Models
  • Energy-Efficient Routing
  • Underwater Robotics
  • Oceanographic Research
Research works
41k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
4k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+30%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
60% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Underwater Vehicles and Communication Systems

Which countries lead Underwater Vehicles and Communication Systems research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (5.1k and 1k works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 5.1k works
  2. 2 United States 1k works
  3. 3 India 790 works
  4. 4 Japan 322 works
  5. 5 United Kingdom 274 works
  6. 6 South Korea 259 works
  7. 7 Italy 213 works
  8. 8 Germany 172 works
  9. 9 Russia 150 works
  10. 10 France 149 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: 60.3%United States: 12.0%India: 9.4%Japan: 3.8%6 others listed: 14.5%60%largest
China5,067 · 60.3%United States1,012 · 12.0%India790 · 9.4%Japan322 · 3.8%6 others listed1,216 · 14.5%

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

Which institutions lead Underwater Vehicles and Communication Systems research?

By volume in 2022-now, Harbin Engineering University publishes the most Underwater Vehicles and Communication Systems research, followed by Chinese Academy of Sciences and Northwestern Polytechnical University.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Harbin Engineering UniversityChina 291 works
  2. 2 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 237 works
  3. 3 Northwestern Polytechnical UniversityChina 197 works
  4. 4 Zhejiang UniversityChina 121 works
  5. 5 Dalian Maritime UniversityChina 117 works
  6. 6 Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityChina 101 works
  7. 7 Ocean University of ChinaChina 97 works
  8. 8 Tianjin UniversityChina 91 works
  9. 9 Harbin Institute of TechnologyChina 83 works
  10. 10 Southeast UniversityChina 77 works

Who are the leading researchers in Underwater Vehicles and Communication Systems?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Underwater Vehicles and Communication Systems include Zhong Lin Wang, Xiaogang Wang and Kai You Wang.

  1. 1 Zhong Lin Wang United States 491k citations
  2. 2 Xiaogang Wang China 260k citations
  3. 3 Kai You Wang China 224k citations
  4. 4 Lei Jiang China 214k citations
  5. 5 Frede Blaabjerg Denmark 203k citations
  6. 6 Paul M. Thompson United States 196k 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 Underwater Vehicles and Communication Systems?

The most cited paper in Underwater Vehicles and Communication Systems is "ORB-SLAM: A Versatile and Accurate Monocular SLAM System" (Raul Mur-Artal, J. M. M. Montiel, Juan D. Tardos, 2015), with 6,689 citations. Next come "Wireless sensor network survey" (6,277) and "Survey of Wireless Indoor Positioning Techniques and Systems" (4,119).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 ORB-SLAM: A Versatile and Accurate Monocular SLAM System Raul Mur-Artal, J. M. M. Montiel, Juan D. Tardos · IEEE Transactions on Robotics Open access 24 Aug 2015 6,689
2 Wireless sensor network survey Jennifer Yick, Biswanath Mukherjee, Dipak Ghosal · Computer Networks 15 Apr 2008 6,277
3 Survey of Wireless Indoor Positioning Techniques and Systems Hui Liu, Houshang Darabi, Pat P. Banerjee et al. · IEEE Transactions on Systems Man and Cybernetics Part C (Applications and Reviews) 23 Oct 2007 4,119
4 GPS-less low-cost outdoor localization for very small devices Nirupama Bulusu, John Heidemann, Deborah L. Estrin · IEEE Personal Communications 2000 3,601
5 Underwater acoustic sensor networks: research challenges Ian Fuat Akyildiz, Dario Pompili, Tommaso Melodia · Ad Hoc Networks 3 Feb 2005 3,092
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Underwater Vehicles and Communication Systems research done?

The largest centres of Underwater Vehicles and Communication Systems research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Harbin (China), Xi'an (China) and Shanghai (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Falmouth, Zhoushan and Yokosuka.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 775 works
  2. 2 HarbinChina 403 works
  3. 3 Xi'anChina 351 works
  4. 4 ShanghaiChina 338 works
  5. 5 WuhanChina 301 works
  6. 6 NanjingChina 265 works
  7. 7 HangzhouChina 237 works
  8. 8 QingdaoChina 229 works
  9. 9 DalianChina 194 works
  10. 10 TianjinChina 163 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. FalmouthUS · 24.6 works37×
  2. ZhoushanCN · 58.3 works29×
  3. YokosukaJP · 20.7 works20×
  4. SanyaCN · 32.9 works18×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Underwater Vehicles and Communication Systems than the world average.

See Underwater Vehicles and Communication Systems on the map

Where is the best place to study Underwater Vehicles and Communication Systems?

Among universities, judged by research, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Dalian Maritime University and Westlake 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%mean 20.01%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Westlake UniversityNanyang Technologica…Hong Kong University…Dalian Maritime Univ…
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
1Hong Kong University of Science and TechnologyChina 66.722.3%3.4×12 +20.6%
2Dalian Maritime UniversityChina 65.416.7%36.1×117 +48.3%
3Westlake UniversityChina 64.833.5%8.2×9 +65.9%
4Nanyang Technological UniversitySingapore 64.122.8%3.8×27 +67.3%
5Harbin Engineering UniversityChina 63.813.1%63.2×291 +39.0%
6Khalifa University of Science and TechnologyUnited Arab Emirates 62.227.6%5.7×12 +304.2%
7Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityChina 61.119.2%3.0×23 +135.8%
8Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityChina 60.419.3%3.9×101 +35.0%
9Tianjin UniversityChina 58.814.9%8.4×91 +68.6%
10Northwestern Polytechnical UniversityChina 58.310.7%19.4×197 +74.5%

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 Underwater Vehicles and Communication Systems, country by country

Is Underwater Vehicles and Communication Systems research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 30% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2023. The fastest-growing topics are Underwater Vehicles and Communication Systems.

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 Underwater Vehicles and Communication Systems as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.043% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%0.060%Underwater Vehicles and Communication Systems0.042% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Underwater Vehicles and Communication Systems 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%Underwater Vehicles and Communication Systems9.7% 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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