Robotic study has become more diverse and wide as the relation of the robot and the real world has deepened in the recent years. This paper surveys an overview of the entire aspect concerning robotic study from past till present. We show that it offers useful information to all robotic researchers who are looking for their next work theme and also to research funding agencies which are planning to distribute their resources.
All publications, 53,500 in total, on the robotic study has been extracted from three databases provided by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI). A citation network of these databases, consisting of 34,948 nodes, has been created using the Academic Landscape Visualization Tool which was developed by the University of Tokyo Innovation Policy Research Center.
We conduct an analysis of the network on its centrality, cluster and chronological growth. It is indicated that the current robotic study is composed of four major clusters. These clusters also reveal that their growth correlates with the relation of the robot and their real world use.
We further analyze nine smaller clusters which are young in the average year, to find out their growth potential. In addition, we divide four major clusters into sub-clusters to investigate the details. As a result, we identify the robotic research fields, which are recently growing and also in which Japan is strong or weak.
