Nature Robotics

Nature Robotics
Title	Nature Robotics
Discipline	Robotics
Publisher	Springer Nature
Country	United Kingdom
Frequency	Monthly
History	2019–present
Impact	28.6
Impact-year	2024

Nature Robotics Nature Robotics is a peer-reviewed scientific journal publishing research on robotics and related technologies. Launched in 2019 by Springer Nature, it addresses advances spanning mechanics, artificial intelligence, materials science, and biomedical engineering. The journal targets researchers affiliated with institutions such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Harvard University, University of California, Berkeley, and ETH Zurich while engaging industrial partners including Boston Dynamics, Toyota Research Institute, Google DeepMind, OpenAI, and Siemens.

Overview

Nature Robotics covers experimental studies and theoretical analyses connecting robotics with fields represented by IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, Association for Computing Machinery, Royal Society, European Space Agency, and NASA. Typical content features collaborations among researchers from Imperial College London, California Institute of Technology, Tsinghua University, Peking University, University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, Delft University of Technology, EPFL, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Washington, University of Michigan, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Pennsylvania, and Johns Hopkins University.

Scope and Aims

The journal emphasizes work that integrates technologies from NVIDIA Research, Intel Labs, ARM Holdings, IBM Research, Microsoft Research, and Facebook AI Research with applications in domains like Pfizer-linked medical robotics, Medtronic surgical platforms, Johnson & Johnson devices, Siemens Healthineers imaging integration, and Roche diagnostics. It promotes interdisciplinary research spanning collaborations with Wellcome Trust, National Institutes of Health, European Research Council, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, German Research Foundation, and Australian Research Council grant-funded teams.

Publication History

Established in 2019 under the imprint of Springer Nature, the journal followed a trajectory similar to other Nature-branded journals such as Nature Machine Intelligence, Nature Communications, Nature Materials, Nature Biomedical Engineering, and Nature Physics. Early editorial leadership included figures affiliated with University of Oxford, ETH Zurich, Harvard Medical School, Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, and CNRS. Special issues and themed collections have highlighted work showcased at conferences like ICRA, ICRA 2020, IROS, RSS, NeurIPS, ICML, CVPR, EMNLP, CHI, and SIGGRAPH.

Editorial and Peer Review Process

Editorial oversight involves editors with backgrounds at Nature Publishing Group, Springer Nature Research, Scientific American, The Lancet, and advisory board members from MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories. Peer review engages referees connected to institutions such as Princeton University, Columbia University, Yale University, Brown University, Duke University, Northwestern University, University of Toronto, McGill University, University of British Columbia, and Monash University. The process aligns with standards from organizations like Committee on Publication Ethics and indexing practices of Clarivate Analytics.

Impact and Reception

Nature Robotics has been cited in policy documents from European Commission, United States Department of Defense, UK Research and Innovation, and technical roadmaps published by IEEE Standards Association. Coverage appears in outlets such as The New York Times, The Guardian, MIT Technology Review, Wired, Nature News, Science Magazine, New Scientist, Bloomberg, Financial Times, BBC News, and CNBC. The journal influences research directions at laboratories like SoftBank Robotics, ABB Robotics, KUKA, Fanuc, Yaskawa Electric Corporation, Hyundai Motor Group, Volvo Group, and Bosch.

Notable Articles and Contributions

Noteworthy papers have connected robotics with topics explored at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Max Planck Institute for Biology, Broad Institute, Janelia Research Campus, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Highly cited contributions include work on legged locomotion influencing projects at Boston Dynamics and ANYbotics, dexterous manipulation relevant to Shadow Robot Company and OpenAI Five, soft robotics linked to Harvard Wyss Institute and EPFL Soft Robotics Lab, and biohybrid systems related to Wyss Institute collaborations. Reviews and perspectives have engaged thought leaders who presented at forums like Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition, World Economic Forum, TED, AAAS Annual Meeting, and APS March Meeting.

Access and Indexing

The journal is distributed via platforms maintained by Springer Nature and is indexed in databases curated by Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed Central, INSPEC, arXiv, CrossRef, DOAJ, Google Scholar, and EBSCO. Institutional subscriptions are common at universities including Cornell University, University of California, San Diego, University of Minnesota, Ohio State University, Texas A&M University, and research institutes like SRI International, Battelle Memorial Institute, Fraunhofer Society, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, and Riken.

Category:Academic journals