OOIR: Observatory of International Research

Papers

(The TQCC of Science Robotics is 34. The table below lists those papers that are above that threshold based on CrossRef citation counts [max. 250 papers]. The publications cover those that have been published in the past four years, i.e., from 2021-04-01 to 2025-04-01.)

Article	Citations
Culturally competent social robots target inclusion in Africa	612
A fictional history of robotics features forgotten real-world robots	419
From motor control to team play in simulated humanoid football	298
Co-designing hardware and control for robot hands	277
Cooperative cargo transportation by a swarm of molecular machines	272
SimPLE, a visuotactile method learned in simulation to precisely pick, localize, regrasp, and place objects	222
Upgrading and extending the life cycle of soft robots with in situ free-form liquid three-dimensional printing	216
Designing a robot to recover a sunken submarine is hard	208
The case against machine vision for the control of wearable robotics: Challenges for commercial adoption	197
Toward three-dimensional DNA industrial nanorobots	196
Teaching a single-arm robot to fold towels	184
Coherent, super-resolved radar beamforming using self-supervised learning	180
Do we really want AI to be human-like?	170
Float like a butterfly, swim like a biohybrid neuromuscular robot	167
Machine learning, robots, and abuse of power	146
Ajna: Generalized deep uncertainty for minimal perception on parsimonious robots	142
The AI Act Grand Challenge shows how autonomous robots will be regulated	138
Unraveling DNA inspires artificial muscle	136
The jig is up for small soft machines	127
By the time we build robots that care for us, will we be able to care for them?	127
Bot self-destruction memes are no laughing matter in science fiction	126
Robotic manipulation of cardiomyocytes to identify gap junction modifiers for arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy	125
Ted Chiang imagines a computational theory of robots	123
Persuasive robots should avoid authority: The effects of formal and real authority on persuasion in human-robot interaction	121
Would robots really bother with a bloody uprising?	113

Engineering and surgical advancements enable more cognitively integrated bionic arms	113
Toward stronger artificial muscles	110
Wild Tech: Exploring South Africa’s unique robotics landscape	109
Robotic assistive technologies get more personal	108
Brief exosuit use improves post-stroke gait	105
A seasonally invariant deep transform for visual terrain-relative navigation	104
Early science fiction got microbots surprisingly right	104
Secure and secret cooperation in robot swarms	103
Robot pack mules remain science fiction for now	103
“Robots for good”: Ten defining questions	101
Overcoming the challenges that women in robotics face	101
Stretchable Arduinos embedded in soft robots	100
Bridging hard and soft: Mechanical metamaterials enable rigid torque transmission in soft robots	98
Harnessing AI and robotics in humanitarian assistance and disaster response	95
Tactile sensors need a greater sense of purpose	93
From individual robots to robot societies	92
Hexagonal electrohydraulic modules for rapidly reconfigurable high-speed robots	90
Using robots to advance clinical translation in neurorehabilitation	89
How much initiative should a service robot have?	86
Self-organizing nervous systems for robot swarms	85
Electronics-free soft robot has a nice ring to it	84
Preclinical upper limb neurorobotic platform to assess, rehabilitate, and develop therapies	83
Reinforcement learning–based framework for whale rendezvous via autonomous sensing robots	82
Coordinated behavior of autonomous microscopic machines through local electronic pulse coupling	81
Microsaccade-inspired event camera for robotics	80
The cold truth about robotics research in the United Kingdom as a Caribbean woman	79
Monte Carlo tree search with spectral expansion for planning with dynamical systems	78
Accelerating the pace of innovation in robotics by fostering diversity and inclusive leadership	75
A gyroscope-free visual-inertial flight control and wind sensing system for 10-mg robots	75
Social robots as conversational catalysts: Enhancing long-term human-human interaction at home	74
Virtual elasto-plastic robot compliance to active environments	74
Upscaling the production of sterile male mosquitoes with an automated pupa sex sorter	71
Toward next-generation learned robot manipulation	70
Reaching the limit in autonomous racing: Optimal control versus reinforcement learning	69
High-resolution outdoor videography of insects using Fast Lock-On tracking	66
Biohybrid microrobots regulate colonic cytokines and the epithelium barrier in inflammatory bowel disease	64
The role of user preference in the customized control of robotic exoskeletons	63
Magnetically actuated dexterous tools for minimally invasive operation inside the brain	62
Liquid-amplified zipping actuators for micro-air vehicles with transmission-free flapping	61
Avian eye–inspired perovskite artificial vision system for foveated and multispectral imaging	60
Scale-inspired programmable robotic structures with concurrent shape morphing and stiffness variation	60
When less is more: Robot swarms adapt better to changes with constrained communication	59
Toward a living soft microrobot through optogenetic locomotion control of Caenorhabditis elegans	58
3D printing of resilient biogels for omnidirectional and exteroceptive soft actuators	57
Deployment of an electrocorticography system with a soft robotic actuator	56
Solar-powered shape-changing origami microfliers	56
Morphological computation and decentralized learning in a swarm of sterically interacting robots	56
A neuromechanics solution for adjustable robot compliance and accuracy	55
Body-powered variable impedance: An approach to augmenting humans with a passive device by reshaping lifting posture	54
Wireless flow-powered miniature robot capable of traversing tubular structures	53

Estimating human joint moments unifies exoskeleton control, reducing user effort	53
Imaging-guided bioresorbable acoustic hydrogel microrobots	52
Electrospun liquid crystal elastomer microfiber actuator	52
Haptic perception using optoelectronic robotic flesh for embodied artificially intelligent agents	51
Shape morphing mechanical metamaterials through reversible plasticity	51
Soft robotic patient-specific hydrodynamic model of aortic stenosis and ventricular remodeling	48
Learning robust perceptive locomotion for quadrupedal robots in the wild	48
Robot swarms meet soft matter physics	45
Robots can motivate children to practice piano	45
An agile monopedal hopping quadcopter with synergistic hybrid locomotion	45
A springtail-inspired multimodal walking-jumping microrobot	45
A retrospective of Isaac Asimov at 102 and his Three Laws	44
Modular reconfiguration of DNA origami assemblies using tile displacement	44
A guiding light for stimulating paralyzed muscles	44
Autonomous tracking of honey bee behaviors over long-term periods with cooperating robots	44
Robot behavior that can adapt to user interaction	44
Wearable robots for the real world need vision	44
The droids in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett are not wild enough for the real world	41
Technology matters, especially when deploying robots in the real world	41
Toward self-contained bidirectional bionic limbs with high information throughput	41
Robot therapy pets get a starring role in Lightyear and in real life	40
Is “suicide by droid” satire or a real possibility?	40
Optogenetics gets the worm	39
Robots are taming the wild	39
A professional slackliner robot	38
Quantifying stiffness and forces of tumor colonies and embryos using a magnetic microrobot	38
Swarm robots in science fiction	38
Exploring beyond Earth using space robotics	38
Self-reconfigurable multilegged robot swarms collectively accomplish challenging terradynamic tasks	37
Surmounting the ceiling effect of motor expertise by novel sensory experience with a hand exoskeleton	37
Would you trust an intelligent robot?	37
Designing an effective graphic abstract	37
Reducing sprint time with exosuit assistance in the real world	36
Manipulation for self-Identification, and self-Identification for better manipulation	36
Segmentations in fins enable large morphing amplitudes combined with high flexural stiffness for fish-inspired robotic materials	36
Crawling, climbing, perching, and flying by FiBa soft robots	34
High energy density picoliter-scale zinc-air microbatteries for colloidal robotics	34
Getting a grip on reality	34
Web-based distributed robot localization	34
Visual route following for tiny autonomous robots	34