Robotics and Autonomous Systems Award winner and finalists | Industry Collaboration Index

Robotics and Autonomous Systems: the winner and finalists

3 finalist partnerships, chosen from 7 eligible university and company partnerships in the open record. The winner is listed first; the other finalists follow in alphabetical order of university. The winner in each category is the finalist with the highest partnership score (volume of joint work 40%, years active 30%, field-weighted citation impact 30%) in the frozen Edition 1 record. No panel, nomination or payment plays any part. Winners were announced with the index at 05:30 BST, Thursday 15 October 2026, after the corrections and opt-out window closed at 17:00 BST on Tuesday 13 October.

Award pool and ranking pool. The Robotics and Autonomous Systems sector ranking is withheld because fewer than 10 universities are eligible for it. The award runs on its own pool of screened partnerships: the award pool and the ranking pool have different eligibility rules.

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Winner · partnership score 84.7, the highest in the category

University of Nottingham×Rolls-Royce

United Kingdom · company based in United Kingdom · 10 joint works in the sector · active 5 of 5 years · field-weighted citation impact 1.88

Dragos A. AxinteAcademic co-author · University of Nottingham · 8 joint works in the partnership · ORCID

Andy NortonIndustry co-author · Rolls-Royce · 5 joint works in the partnership · ORCID

“A Continuum Robot for Remote Applications: From Industrial to Medical Surgery With Slender Continuum Robots” (2022, 85 citations)

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Johns Hopkins University×Weinberg Medical Physics

United States · company based in United States · 5 joint works in the sector · active 3 of 5 years · field-weighted citation impact 1.07

Axel KriegerAcademic co-author · Johns Hopkins University · 4 joint works in the partnership · ORCID

Lamar O. MairIndustry co-author · Weinberg Medical Physics · 5 joint works in the partnership · ORCID

“Overcoming the Force Limitations of Magnetic Robotic Surgery: Magnetic Pulse Actuated Collisions for Tissue‐Penetrating‐Needle for Tetherless Interventions” (2022, 24 citations)

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Shanghai Jiao Tong University×Lenovo

China · company based in China · 6 joint works in the sector · active 2 of 5 years · field-weighted citation impact 1.45

Limin YangAcademic co-author · Shanghai Jiao Tong University · 2 joint works in the partnership · ORCID

Jiangwei ZhongIndustry co-author · Lenovo · 2 joint works in the partnership

“Motion Planning for a Legged Robot with Dynamic Characteristics” (2024, 6 citations)

Partnership score: volume of joint work 40%, years active 30%, field-weighted citation impact 30% (shrunk toward 1.0 when evidence is thin). Joint works count half where the only company author also holds a post at the university. The named researchers co-wrote the cited paper and represent a wider team. Full rules.