Indian Journal of Information Sources and Services ISSN: 2231-6094 Vol. 7 No. 1, 2017, pp. 25-31 © The Research Publication, www.trp.org.in Research Output Analysis on Robotic Technology: A Scientometric Study M.Sadik Batcha Associate Professor, Library and Information Science Wing DDE, Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu, India Email: msbau@rediffmail.com Abstract - Robotics Technology is a fast growing field of research. Robotics is the branch of science that includes mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer science and others. Robotics deals with the design, construction, operation, and use of robots. This paper assess the volume of research carried out by the scientists in world wide on robotic technology, their share of research to world literature in robotics, forms and language that they publish their results, quantum of their publications in terms of institutions involved in research in robotic technology, extent of international collaboration, etc. Data for this study was culled from the Web of Science. The period of study is from 1990 to 2016. Totally 3703 institutions resulted out the output of 5316 among them top 30 institutions’ output is noteworthy. The developing countries like USA, UK and Germany concentrate in the field of robotic technology. Yet Major portion of contribution (36.30%) is from USA. The journal articles are the key factors in sharing the research values among the researchers in the forms of articles which is amounted to be top (67.40%). The language preferred in exchanging research results is English (87.70%) followed by German. The prolific authors in the field of robotic technology are highly found from USA among them the contribution by Bloss R is appreciable. The citation counts seems to be high in the year 2015 which has recorded 11,000 citations. I. INTRODUCTION Robotics is the branch of science that includes mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer science and others. Robotics deals with the design, construction, operation, and use of robots. A robot is a programmable mechanical device that can perform tasks and interact with its environment, without the aid of human interaction. Robotics is the science and technology behind the design, manufacturing and application of robots. The word robot was coined by the Czech playwright Karel Capek in 1921. He wrote a play called “Rossum's Universal Robots” that was about a slave class of manufactured human-like servants and their struggle for freedom. The Czech word robota loosely means "compulsive servitude.” The word robotics was first used by the famous science fiction writer, Isaac Asimov, in 1941. Robotics Technology is a fast growing field of research. Robots can improve the quality of life, taking over dangerous or difficult jobs. Especially with the aging of population robots can help extending the independent living of elderly. With the accelerating development of enabling technologies, robotics is rapidly expanding, as recognized world wide. SARA-1 incorporates the concepts of a relatively new field known as cooperative robotics [1, 2]. Robotics deals with the study of multiple autonomous agents i.e “working together” to perform some task that is either too difficult or impossible for one agent to perform while acting alone. It merges the disciplines of computer science, electrical engineering, and artificial intelligence. Research scenarios include box-pushing [3], exploration, area mapping, fire-fighting, hazardous waste removal [4], water treatment [5], and mine detection. II. SCIENTOMETRICS AND ROBOTIC TECHNOLOGY The term scientometrics was invented by the Russian mathematician Vasiliy Nalimov (naukometriya in Russian, meaning the study of the evolution of science through the measurement of scientific information) (Nalimov and Mulchenko, 1969) [6] (Godin B) [7]. This term was not noticed in Western scientific circles until it was translated into English (Garfield, 2009) [8]. Scientometrics is a science about science (Price, 1961, 1963) [9]. It provides the researchers with various concepts, models, and techniques that may be applied to any discipline in order to explore its foundations, state, intellectual core, and potential future development.(Sadik Batcha M) [10]. Many studies have analyzed the scientific and technological disciplines from a scientometric perspective, (Godin B) [11] but a brief overview of these works reveals that research output on robotic technology publications lights on the trends, strength and weakness of the discipline (Moravcsik M J and Ziman S M 1975) [12] (Gunasekaran et al.2006) [13]. The Scietometrics study measures the performance based on several parameters, country annual growth rate and collaborative index. (Baskaran C and Sadik Batcha) [14] Moreover, no meta-analysis study has previously been done to aggregate the results of the seemingly independent scientometric inquiries into the research output of robotic technology world wide (Arunachalam, 1986) [15]. Therefore, the present investigation conducts a meta- analysis of scientometric research in order to consolidate Scientometric research on this burning field, to develop recommendations for future scientometric researchers and to better understand the identity of this scientific field. 25 IJISS Vol.7 No.1 January-June 2017