- Capability group
- Robotics & Autonomous Systems
- Domain
- Critical Technology · Hard Power
- Identifier
- factbase.org/cap/505KDETD26
- Reference
- Robotics Wikipedia
Papers
86.8k
2020–2024
Paper growth
+47%
2020–24 on 2015–19
Patent families
100.6k
2020–2024
Filed abroad
23%
families in more than one office
In the framework
What the capability covers and what it leaves to others, and the indicators it will be measured by.
Bounds
Covers robotic technology and its manufacture; deployment density across the economy is the deploy-layer read, and military robotics registers under National Security's force capabilities.
Lineage
Relocated in v0.1 from the split group at the same level, carrying its identifier under the relocation convention; rewritten from a definition of robotics to the capacity to build and field it.
Indicators
- research publication share in roboticsResearch
- industrial robot productionPending
- robotics patent familiesPatents
Research
Papers classified to the capability, by year and by the nation of their authors' institutions, 2020–2024. Read from the v0.0 research topic Advanced robotics.
Papers by year
The five leading nations, papers by year
Share of papers, 2020–2024
Of papers with a known author nation; 29% have none and are left out.
- 1China27.6%20,062 papers
- 2United States11.6%8,427 papers
- 3Japan6.7%4,838 papers
- 4India4.5%3,247 papers
- 5Germany4.4%3,199 papers
- 6United Kingdom4.2%3,044 papers
- 7Italy3.6%2,582 papers
- 8South Korea2.7%1,957 papers
- 9France2.0%1,455 papers
- 10Canada2.0%1,442 papers
Leading institutions, 2020–2024
By fractional count: each paper divided among its authors' institutions.
- 1Harbin Institute of Technology772fractional papers
- 2Shanghai Jiao Tong University572fractional papers
- 3Beijing Institute of Technology489fractional papers
- 4Beihang University460fractional papers
- 5Tsinghua University409fractional papers
- 6Zhejiang University363fractional papers
- 7Huazhong University of Science and Technology330fractional papers
- 8The University of Tokyo314fractional papers
- 9Chinese Academy of Sciences308fractional papers
- 10Northwestern Polytechnical University304fractional papers
Patents
Patent families by the nation of origin of their applicants and their earliest priority year, from the CPC and IPC classes the capability is read from. 2025 onwards is incomplete: families are published 18 months after priority.
Families by priority year
The five leading origins, families by year
18,259 applicants filed here in 2015–2024; the five largest held 8% of families (HHI 27 of 10,000: unconcentrated).
Share of families by origin, 2020–2024
- 1China63.2%63,516 families
- 2South Korea10.7%10,712 families
- 3Japan9.4%9,456 families
- 4United States7.1%7,125 families
- 5Germany2.8%2,857 families
- 6Switzerland1.0%1,009 families
- 7Taiwan0.8%769 families
- 8France0.7%754 families
- 9Italy0.6%564 families
- 10United Kingdom0.5%474 families
Applicants filing most internationally, 2015–2024
Families filed in more than one office, by applicant as the offices name them.
- 1FANUC CORP1,688international families
- 2FANUC LTD1,281international families
- 3LG ELECTRONICS INC911international families
- 4SEIKO EPSON CORP807international families
- 5KAWASAKI HEAVY IND LTD802international families
- 6SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO LTD699international families
- 7ABB SCHWEIZ AG623international families
- 8INTUITIVE SURGICAL OPERATIONS586international families
- 9COVIDIEN LP580international families
- 10CILAG GMBH INT463international families
Classification read
- B25J Robots and manipulators: arms, grippers, joints, program control · 1.3m documents
- B62D57/032 Legged walking machines · 12.3k documents
- A61B34/30 Surgical robots · 198.2k documents
- Y10S901/00 Older US robots collection · 51k documents
- G05B2219/39 Robot control detail: kinematics, calibration, grasping · 57.5k documents
- G05B2219/40 Robot control detail: vision, planning, teleoperation · 77.6k documents
Shares inventions with
Capabilities whose classes the same families also fall in, by overlap (Jaccard).
- Autonomous Systems & Trusted Autonomy3,982 families · 0.042
- Additive & Precision Manufacturing3,239 families · 0.039
Companies
50 companies in this capability, across 8 regions. The leading 12:
- 1FANUCWorld's largest industrial robot maker by installed base (over 1 million robots shipped) and the top international robotics patent applicant, also supplying CNC and servo systems.Manufacture
- 2ABBABB Robotics is one of the big-four industrial robot makers (IRB arms, GoFa/YuMi cobots); in October 2025 ABB agreed to sell the robotics division to SoftBank Group for about USD 5.4bn.Manufacture
- 3Yaskawa ElectricIts Motoman robots make it one of the big-four industrial robot makers, with more than 600,000 units installed, and it is a leading maker of the servo motors and drives used in them.Manufacture
- 4KUKAA big-four industrial robot maker and leading automotive robot supplier, fully owned by China's Midea Group (SZSE 000333) and delisted in 2022.Manufacture
- 5Intuitive SurgicalDominant surgical robotics firm whose da Vinci systems (over 9,000 installed) and Ion platform lead minimally invasive robotic surgery; a top-10 international robotics patent applicant.Manufacture
- 6Kawasaki Heavy IndustriesJapan's first industrial robot maker (1969) and still a major supplier of welding, painting and medical robots (through Medicaroid); it is developing the Kaleido humanoid.Manufacture
- 7Seiko EpsonWorld market leader in SCARA robots for electronics assembly and a top-five international robotics patent applicant.Manufacture
- 8Boston DynamicsPioneer of dynamic legged locomotion, maker of the Spot quadruped, the Stretch warehouse robot and the electric Atlas humanoid; majority-owned by Hyundai Motor Group.Design
- 9TeslaDeveloping the Optimus general-purpose humanoid, with in-house actuators and hands, and plans for volume production at its US factories.Design
- 10TeradyneOwns Universal Robots, the global collaborative-robot market leader, and Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR), which together form Teradyne Robotics.Manufacture
- 11NabtescoDominant supplier of the RV precision reduction gears used in the joints of most medium and large industrial robots, with about 60% global share.Equipment & materials
- 12Harmonic Drive SystemsLeading maker of the strain-wave (harmonic) gears used in robot wrists, cobots and humanoid joints.Equipment & materials