Critical Technology · capability research profile

Drones, Swarming & Collaborative Robots

Unmanned aerial and ground systems, autonomous swarms and multi-robot coordination — one of the frontier fields of critical technology. Output, growth and standing of the leading nations and institutions, 2000–2025.

Year by year

Papers, authors and institutions in this capability, 2000–2025.

Papers

Annual papers published in this capability, 2000–2025.

Source: Global Institute for National Capability (GINC), 2026. Research records from OpenAlex and the sources set out on the Methodology page

Authors

Distinct authors active in this capability each year, 2000–2025.

Source: Global Institute for National Capability (GINC), 2026. Research records from OpenAlex and the sources set out on the Methodology page

Institutions

Institutions publishing in this capability each year, 2000–2025.

Source: Global Institute for National Capability (GINC), 2026. Research records from OpenAlex and the sources set out on the Methodology page

Top Nations

The 30 most productive nations in this capability. L5Y is the last-five-year paper count, 5Y% its five-year growth, FWCI the field-weighted citation impact, AUTH a citation-weighted standing score and INTL the share of internationally co-authored work. Select a column to re-sort; select it again to flip the direction.

Rank
1	China	3.9K	+286%	1.47	99	22%
2	United States	1.3K	+47%	2.42	91	84%
3	India	725	+339%	2.38	91	31%
4	United Kingdom	489	+92%	1.52	95	51%
5	South Korea	361	+116%	2.49	86	44%
6	Canada	354	+166%	2.23	95	34%
7	Australia	287	+84%	0.93	86	56%
8	Germany	283	+56%	1.90	86	56%
9	Italy	273	+54%	1.40	85	67%
10	Japan	257	+76%	1.15	96	67%
11	Saudi Arabia	249	+466%	1.24	94	49%
12	Singapore	192	+118%	1.83	83	72%
13	France	158	+36%	2.30	95	24%
14	Spain	156	+13%	1.03	81	80%
15	UAE	155	+546%	1.01	81	76%
16	Türkiye	153	+155%	1.05	89	78%
17	Brazil	129	+57%	1.70	84	68%
18	Pakistan	127	+505%	2.18	79	71%
20	Russia	117	+43%	1.59	91	62%
19	Taiwan	117	+244%	2.49	81	33%
21	Greece	116	+147%	2.21	83	58%
22	Malaysia	109	+445%	1.63	86	62%
23	Vietnam	96	+540%	1.64	84	64%
24	Netherlands	88	+167%	2.20	76	24%
25	Portugal	85	+44%	1.33	79	51%
26	Iran	83	+186%	0.74	80	33%
27	Finland	78	+86%	1.57	85	56%
28	Egypt	75	+241%	2.06	79	60%
29	Sweden	69	+57%	0.95	87	48%
30	Czechia	65	+97%	2.34	78	49%

Top Institutions

The 30 leading institutions worldwide in this capability, on the same measures.

Rank
1	Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics	220	+331%	2.28	96	65%
2	Beihang University	218	+199%	2.06	93	34%
3	Northwestern Polytechnical University	190	+252%	2.32	97	22%
4	Beijing Institute of Technology	177	+366%	1.74	87	82%
5	Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications	171	+144%	1.87	89	24%
6	National University of Defense Technology	170	+170%	0.97	90	63%
7	University of Electronic Science and Technology of China	130	+319%	0.91	84	23%
8	Xidian University	126	+271%	1.50	83	41%
9	Tsinghua University	120	+200%	1.04	85	31%
10	Harbin Institute of Technology	119	+325%	1.61	80	80%
11	Southeast University	112	+173%	1.81	80	40%
12	Nanyang Technological University	105	+209%	1.65	65	51%
13	Chinese Academy of Sciences	85	+227%	1.76	73	41%
14	Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications	84	+265%	1.23	62	60%
16	Tongji University	73	+265%	1.34	57	28%
15	Xi'an Jiaotong University	73	+1117%	2.41	59	77%
17	Zhejiang University	71	+294%	1.25	66	39%
18	Sun Yat-sen University	66	+450%	1.83	63	77%
19	University of Science and Technology Beijing	42	+147%	1.63	56	64%
20	Carnegie Mellon University	40	+179%	1.73	57	75%
21	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	38	+144%	2.45	47	54%
22	ETH Zürich	36	+116%	1.01	51	79%
23	Nanyang Technological University	34	+161%	1.65	42	83%
24	Technical University of Munich	32	+176%	1.10	40	71%
25	KAIST	30	+128%	2.16	49	56%
26	Delft University of Technology	28	+100%	2.39	45	36%
27	Georgia Institute of Technology	26	+96%	0.94	46	78%
28	University of Tokyo	24	+97%	2.37	45	80%
29	Imperial College London	22	+105%	2.04	36	48%
30	University of Toronto	20	+163%	1.86	40	75%