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 2022-06-01 to 2026-06-01.)

Article	Citations
Early science fiction got microbots surprisingly right	334
Ted Chiang imagines a computational theory of robots	269
The cold truth about robotics research in the United Kingdom as a Caribbean woman	253
The greatest challenge for prosthetics may be social, not neural, connections	238
Ajna: Generalized deep uncertainty for minimal perception on parsimonious robots	225
Culturally competent social robots target inclusion in Africa	188
Robot-mediated haptic feedback outperforms vision in violin duo coordination	171
Coordinated behavior of autonomous microscopic machines through local electronic pulse coupling	169
Wireless flow-powered miniature robot capable of traversing tubular structures	165
Monte Carlo tree search with spectral expansion for planning with dynamical systems	148
Morphological computation and decentralized learning in a swarm of sterically interacting robots	148
Cross-link collective: Entangled robotic matter with cohesive motion	148
High-speed control and navigation for quadrupedal robots on complex and discrete terrain	147
Biohybrid microrobots regulate colonic cytokines and the epithelium barrier in inflammatory bowel disease	147
From motor control to team play in simulated humanoid football	140
Adaptive active solids	134
Achieving animal endurance in robots through advanced energy storage	132
A self-guided intubation device	131
Toward self-contained bidirectional bionic limbs with high information throughput	123
Reversible kink instability drives ultrafast jumping in nematodes and soft robots	123
Accelerating discovery in natural science laboratories with AI and robotics: Perspectives and challenges	120
Wearable robots for the real world need vision	119
Modular reconfiguration of DNA origami assemblies using tile displacement	115
Remote control of muscle-driven miniature robots with battery-free wireless optoelectronics	113
Surmounting the ceiling effect of motor expertise by novel sensory experience with a hand exoskeleton	111

Crawling, climbing, perching, and flying by FiBa soft robots	111
Autonomous tracking of honey bee behaviors over long-term periods with cooperating robots	108
Embodied aerial physical interaction: Combining body and brain for robust interaction with unstructured environments	108
The neuromechanics of animal locomotion: From biology to robotics and back	106
Advancing physical intelligence for autonomous soft robots	104
Virus-blocking mosquitoes take flight in the fight against dengue	103
Erratum for the Research Article “Restoration of grasping in an upper limb amputee using the myokinetic prosthesis with implanted magnets” by M. Gherardini et al	101
Robotic manipulation of human bipedalism reveals overlapping internal representations of space and time	99
Fly motion vision maximizes signal energy transfer between mechanical input and sensor output	97
MOGrip: Gripper for multiobject grasping in pick-and-place tasks using translational movements of fingers	93
Excitation of natural spinal reflex loops in the sensory-motor control of hand prostheses	93
Neural prosthesis control restores near-normative neuromechanics in standing postural control	91
Representation granularity enables time-efficient autonomous exploration in large, complex worlds	88
Merging motoneuron and postural synergies in prosthetic hand design for natural bionic interfacing	85
Optogenetic neuromuscular actuation of a miniature electronic biohybrid robot	85
The role of low-cost robots in the future of spaceflight	84
AI search, physician removal: Bronchoscopy robot bridges collaboration in foreign body aspiration	80
Robotically steerable guidewires—Current trends and future directions	80
Magnetically actuated gearbox for the wireless control of millimeter-scale robots	80
The codevelopment of soft robotics and assistive technology	79
Understanding humanoid robots could save your life	79
High-tech guardians: Robotics at the heart of the Future Circular Collider	77
Reconfigurable self-assembled DNA devices	77
Vibrotactile feedback aids prosthesis usability	77
Ultralight, strong, and self-reprogrammable mechanical metamaterials	76
Effect of hip abduction assistance on metabolic cost and balance during human walking	75
A retrieval-augmented framework enabling VLM spatial awareness for object-centric robot manipulation	74
Assistive robotics should seamlessly integrate humans and robots	73
A robotic honeycomb for interaction with a honeybee colony	73
OpenExo: An open-source modular exoskeleton to augment human function	72
Tracking and navigation of a microswarm under laser speckle contrast imaging for targeted delivery	71
Autonomous seeking and mapping coral reef biodiversity hotspots with a multimodal AUV	71
Acceptance of humanoid robots: A psychological perspective	70
Increasing the payload capacity of soft robot arms by localized stiffening	70
Unlocking aerobatic potential of quadcopters: Autonomous freestyle flight generation and execution	69
Head-mounted surgical robots are an enabling technology for subretinal injections	67
Bioinspired designer DNA NanoGripper for virus sensing and potential inhibition	67
It is hard to be a robot in the wild	67
Would you risk humanity’s survival on a robot built in two years?	66
Autonomous boat navigation in the real world	65
Explosion-powered eversible tactile displays	65
Teaching robots the art of human social synchrony	64
Clearing away barriers to oral drug delivery	63
Cross-robot behavior adaptation through intention alignment	62
Enhancing social connectedness with companion robots using AI	61
AI-driven aerial robots advance whale research	60
A hyperelastic torque-reversal mechanism for soft joints with compression-responsive transient bistability	60
The force has limits: Molecular motors in robotics	60
Magnetic robots make headway in medicine	60
Soft robotic artificial left ventricle simulator capable of reproducing myocardial biomechanics	60

Tracking hand movements with a smart glove	59
Development of compositionality through interactive learning of language and action of robots	58
Autonomous surface sampling for the Europa Lander mission concept	57
Acrobatics at the insect scale: A durable, precise, and agile micro–aerial robot	57
How can educational robots enhance family life? Through careful integration	57
Knowledge before faith is the motto of a robot pope	56
RoboBallet: Planning for multirobot reaching with graph neural networks and reinforcement learning	56
Scalable robot collective resilience by sharing resources	55
Good old-fashioned engineering can close the 100,000-year “data gap” in robotics	54
A review of learning-based dynamics models for robotic manipulation	52
An ingestible capsule for luminance-based diagnosis of mesenteric ischemia	52
Estimating human joint moments unifies exoskeleton control, reducing user effort	50
Surgical embodied intelligence for generalized task autonomy in laparoscopic robot-assisted surgery	49
Hexagonal electrohydraulic modules for rapidly reconfigurable high-speed robots	48
Self-organizing nervous systems for robot swarms	46
How much initiative should a service robot have?	45
Bot self-destruction memes are no laughing matter in science fiction	44
Neuroprosthesis converts brain activity to speech	44
Float like a butterfly, swim like a biohybrid neuromuscular robot	44
Robotic manipulation of cardiomyocytes to identify gap junction modifiers for arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy	42
Electrofluidic fiber muscles	42
Deep domain adaptation eliminates costly data required for task-agnostic wearable robotic control	42
Solar-powered shape-changing origami microfliers	42
A retrospective of Isaac Asimov at 102 and his Three Laws	41
Reconfigurable aerial robot for subterranean mine inspection	41
Soft deployable airless wheel for lunar lava tube intact exploration	41
Light-emitting, self-healing robotic fibers	40
Bilateral Back Extensor Exosuit for multidimensional assistance and prevention of spinal injuries	39
Robot therapy pets get a starring role in Lightyear and in real life	39
Microscopic robots with onboard digital control	38
Remote magnetic navigation enables precision telesurgery	38
Cooperative robotic exploration of a planetary skylight surface and lava cave	37
Dexterous helical magnetic robot for improved endovascular access	37
Equalizing access: How robotics and AI can transform surgical care worldwide	37
User preference optimization for control of ankle exoskeletons using sample efficient active learning	36
Biohybrid hand actuated by multiple human muscle tissues	35
Insect-inspired AI for autonomous robots	35
Visual route following for tiny autonomous robots	35
The original “I, Robot” featured a murderous robot and the Frankenstein complex	34
Restoration of tactile sensation in bionic hands	34