People

People in Robotics

Profiles of the researchers, founders, and labs shaping modern robotics and physical AI.

Researchers

191 researchers, ranked by a composite of citations, h-index, and recent robotics papers from OpenAlex, as of 2026-10-19. Names with a profile here link to it; the rest link to their OpenAlex record. How we rank

Robotics researchers ranked by sourced score
#	Name	Score	Citations	h-index	Robotics papers 2023–2025
1	Daniela RusMIT	82.4	70,807	131	59
2	Roland SiegwartETH Zurich	76.9	72,605	127	45
3	Jitendra MalikUC Berkeley	74.3	176,426	151	15
4	Sami HaddadinTechnical University of Munich	73.1	17,620	57	88
5	Marco HutterETH Zurich	72.9	26,494	84	68
6	Sergey LevineUC Berkeley	72.9	88,612	136	26
7	Nassir NavabTechnical University of Munich	71.7	74,340	109	40
8	Cyrill StachnissLamarr Institute for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence	71.5	31,787	77	66
9	Fei-Fei LiStanford University	71.0	223,199	137	11
10	Lihua XieNanyang Technological University	70.7	58,483	120	33
11	Pieter AbbeelUC Berkeley	70.4	106,733	134	18
12	Wolfram BurgardUniversity of Technology Nuremberg	70.4	74,332	116	32
13	Dinesh ManochaUniversity of Maryland, College Park	69.8	43,974	94	48
14	Davide ScaramuzzaUniversity of Zurich	69.2	55,972	120	29
15	Masayoshi TomizukaUniversity of California, Berkeley	63.3	28,360	77	43
16	Jonathan P. HowMassachusetts Institute of Technology	62.1	36,134	91	29
17	Alois KnollTechnical University of Munich	62.0	28,563	69	44
18	Howie ChosetCarnegie Mellon University	61.9	23,553	68	46
19	Dieter FoxUniversity of Washington	61.1	45,177	105	16
20	Fei GaoState Key Laboratory of Industrial Control Technology	60.8	7,965	41	69
21	Shaojie ShenHong Kong University of Science and Technology	60.5	19,329	64	46
22	Cewu LuShanghai Jiao Tong University	60.1	24,915	70	39
23	Jan PetersGerman Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence	57.7	28,047	80	25
24	Marco PavoneNvidia (United Kingdom)	57.4	17,321	64	38
25	Chenguang YangBristol Robotics Laboratory	57.1	25,935	82	23
26	Sebastian SchererCarnegie Mellon University	56.9	14,526	56	43
27	Aaron D. AmesCalifornia Institute of Technology	56.1	22,277	64	32
28	Max Q.‐H. MengChinese University of Hong Kong	56.1	20,594	70	29
29	Robin Roberson MurphyTexas A&M University	56.0	15,443	59	38
30	Aude BillardÉcole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne	55.9	21,322	74	26
31	Gaurav S. SukhatmeUniversity of Southern California	55.9	29,014	84	17
32	Antonio BicchiItalian Institute of Technology	55.2	29,320	77	19
33	Peter StoneThe University of Texas at Austin	55.0	30,769	82	15
34	Auke Jan IjspeertÉcole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne	54.9	25,427	76	20
35	Alin Albu‐SchäfferDeutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V. (DLR)	54.1	24,135	73	20
36	Fuchun SunBeijing National Research Center for Information Science and Technology	54.0	25,039	72	20
37	Ming C. LinUniversity of Maryland, College Park	53.5	25,239	76	16
38	Yaonan WangHunan University	53.3	23,720	66	22
39	Ming LiuThe Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou)	53.0	15,647	66	25
40	Danica KragićKTH Royal Institute of Technology	52.8	18,761	67	22
41	Chelsea FinnStanford University	52.4	36,359	73	11
42	Tamim AsfourKarlsruhe Institute of Technology	52.0	13,353	60	27
43	Jens BehleyUniversity of Bonn	51.8	9,987	40	41
44	Russ TedrakeMIT	51.8	17,377	70	18
45	Anı́bal OlleroUniversidad de Sevilla	51.5	18,338	66	19
46	Masayuki InabaThe University of Tokyo	51.4	13,186	52	30
47	Sertaç KaramanMassachusetts Institute of Technology	51.4	19,382	58	23
48	Fu ZhangUniversity of Hong Kong	51.1	9,097	43	38
49	Michael John MilfordQueensland University of Technology	51.1	13,096	49	31
50	Sylvain CalinonÉcole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne	51.1	11,262	55	29
51	Javier Alonso–MoraDelft University of Technology	50.7	9,277	44	36
52	Luca CarloneMassachusetts Institute of Technology	50.2	19,325	57	20
53	Xieyuanli ChenNational University of Defense Technology	49.9	3,868	34	48
54	Abhinav ValadaUniversity of Freiburg	49.8	3,915	33	48
55	Ben M. ChenChinese University of Hong Kong	49.8	14,540	58	21
56	Mac SchwagerStanford University	49.7	9,327	56	26
57	Jia PanUniversity of Hong Kong	49.6	9,634	48	30
58	Shuran SongStanford University	49.4	27,327	51	18
59	Angela P. SchoelligTechnical University of Munich	49.3	8,649	45	32
60	Arash AjoudaniItalian Institute of Technology	49.1	7,689	44	33
61	Hesheng WangShanghai Jiao Tong University	48.8	9,720	51	26
62	Aiguo SongSoutheast University	48.7	9,754	47	28
63	Christian OttDeutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V. (DLR)	48.6	14,276	59	17
64	Huaping LiuBeijing National Research Center for Information Science and Technology	48.6	13,057	57	19
65	Kaspar A. AlthoeferQueen Mary University of London	48.6	14,265	61	16
66	Panagiotis Tsiotras BGeorgia Institute of Technology	48.4	13,444	59	17
67	Chao XuState Key Laboratory of Industrial Control Technology	48.3	8,425	44	30
68	Yuke ZhuNvidia (United States)	47.8	16,995	47	20
69	Ken GoldbergUC Berkeley	47.7	14,669	61	13
70	Hang ZhaoShanghai Qi Zhi Institute	47.4	20,904	45	18
71	Stefan LeuteneggerTechnical University of Munich	47.3	17,941	40	22
72	Timothy D. BarfootUniversity of Toronto	47.2	8,873	41	28
73	Elena De MomiFondazione Politecnico di Milano	47.0	10,121	53	19
74	Michael KaessCarnegie Mellon University	46.8	12,530	52	17
75	Dorsa SadighStanford University	46.7	10,074	50	20
76	Jeannette BohgStanford University	46.6	11,252	46	21
77	Kostas AlexisNorwegian University of Science and Technology	46.6	8,458	49	22
78	Matthias AlthoffTechnical University of Munich	46.5	11,985	55	15
79	Michael C. YipUniversity of California San Diego	46.4	5,888	40	30
80	Koushil SreenathUniversity of California, Berkeley	46.2	10,798	48	19
81	César CadenaETH Zurich	45.9	14,195	44	18
82	Fumiya Iida AUniversity of Cambridge	45.7	10,874	47	18
83	Hyouk Ryeol ChoiSungkyunkwan University	45.6	10,983	50	16
84	Marcelo H. AngNational University of Singapore	45.6	9,737	45	20
85	Kei OkadaThe University of Tokyo	45.5	6,850	40	26
86	Sethu VijayakumarUniversity of Edinburgh	45.5	9,799	48	18
87	Iulian Ioan IordachitaJohns Hopkins University	45.4	9,524	48	18
88	Maren BennewitzUniversity of Bonn	45.4	8,906	37	25
89	Guido de CroonDelft University of Technology	45.2	7,370	44	22
90	Pietro ValdastriUniversity of Leeds	44.9	9,446	49	16
91	Guoquan P. HuangMeituan (China)	44.8	6,071	40	25
92	Yiannis AloimonosUniversity of Maryland, College Park	44.8	7,947	46	19
93	Paolo Robuffo GiordanoCentre National de la Recherche Scientifique	44.7	7,259	49	18
94	Volkan IslerUniversity of Minnesota	44.7	6,557	42	23
95	Giuseppe LoiannoNew York University	44.4	4,977	38	27
96	Nathan F. LeporaBristol Robotics Laboratory	44.3	5,447	36	27
97	H. Jin KimSeoul National University	44.0	7,361	45	18
98	Shenghai YuanNanyang Technological University	44.0	2,848	28	37
99	Xuesu XiaoGeorge Mason University	44.0	2,383	29	38
100	Animesh GargGeorgia Institute of Technology	43.8	7,252	46	17
101	Dongjun LeeSeoul National University	43.7	6,036	40	22
102	Marc ToussaintTechnische Universität Berlin	43.7	8,297	45	16
103	Martin SaskaCzech Technical University in Prague	43.6	5,819	40	22
104	Stelian CorosETH Zurich	43.6	6,039	43	20
105	Hyun MyungKorea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology	43.0	6,742	43	17
106	Qijun ChenTongji University	42.7	7,346	40	17
107	Shoudong HuangUniversity of Technology Sydney	42.2	5,577	42	17
108	Chen FengNew York University	42.0	7,341	35	18
109	Claudio SeminiItalian Institute of Technology	42.0	5,685	41	17
110	Cosimo Della SantinaDelft University of Technology	41.9	4,786	33	23
111	Nikolay AtanasovUniversity of California San Diego	41.6	4,405	31	24
112	Pulkit AgrawalMIT	41.5	8,505	35	15
113	Ayoung KimSeoul National University	41.4	6,248	38	16
114	Kai HuangSun Yat-sen University	41.2	4,416	36	20
115	Yixi CaiJiangsu University	41.2	5,624	39	16
116	Tetsuya OgataNational Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology	41.1	6,402	36	16
117	Axel KriegerJohns Hopkins University	41.0	5,907	35	17
118	Dmitry BerensonUniversity of Michigan	40.8	5,687	35	17
119	Yanyong ZhangUniversity of Science and Technology of China	40.8	5,221	36	17
120	Josie HughesÉcole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne	40.7	3,093	27	27
121	Songhwai OhSeoul National University	40.7	4,303	34	20
122	Kris K. HauserUniversity of Illinois Urbana-Champaign	40.6	5,272	37	16
123	Stephan WeißUniversity of Klagenfurt	40.6	5,560	31	19
124	Ville KyrkiAalto University	40.5	4,823	36	17
125	Zhenshan BingTechnical University of Munich	40.1	2,154	23	31
126	Wenbo DingPeng Cheng Laboratory	40.0	3,847	32	20
127	Robert Kevin KatzschmannETH Zurich	39.9	5,971	31	16
128	Yunzhou ZhangNortheastern University	39.8	3,348	28	23
129	Yufeng YueBeijing Institute of Technology	39.6	1,671	23	32
130	Patrick M. WensingUniversity of Notre Dame	39.5	5,353	31	16
131	Deepak PathakCarnegie Mellon University	39.3	13,272	34	5
132	Oliver KroemerCarnegie Mellon University	39.3	4,475	33	16
133	Sehoon HaGeorgia Institute of Technology	39.2	5,117	27	18
134	Jingjin YuRutgers, The State University of New Jersey	39.1	3,088	26	23
135	Peng LuUniversity of Hong Kong	39.0	3,111	29	21
136	Poramate ManoonpongUniversity of Southern Denmark	38.9	3,946	33	16
137	Wenzhen YuanUniversity of Illinois Urbana-Champaign	38.9	5,386	28	16
138	Jun MaHong Kong University of Science and Technology	38.6	1,716	23	29
139	He WangPeking University	38.5	3,956	29	17
140	Aniket BeraPurdue University West Lafayette	38.4	3,179	29	19
141	Lionel OttETH Zurich	38.4	6,323	23	16
142	Minas V. LiarokapisUniversity of Auckland	38.2	3,089	30	18
143	Zhen KanUniversity of Science and Technology of China	38.2	3,395	30	17
144	Boyu ZhouSouthern University of Science and Technology	38.0	3,437	22	21
145	Changliu LiuCarnegie Mellon University	37.9	3,146	28	18
146	Tin Lun LamChinese University of Hong Kong	37.9	2,620	28	20
147	Haojian LuState Key Laboratory of Industrial Control Technology	37.8	3,608	27	17
148	Heni Ben AmorArizona State University	37.8	3,339	30	16
149	Karol HausmanPhysical Intelligence	37.7	7,453	32	7
150	Matthew GombolayGeorgia Institute of Technology	37.7	3,238	30	16
151	Shan LuoKing's College London	37.7	3,276	30	16
152	Jin WuHong Kong University of Science and Technology	37.6	3,001	29	17
153	Lerrel PintoNew York University	37.5	5,160	32	10
154	Daniele PucciItalian Institute of Technology	37.4	2,775	26	19
155	Liangjun ZhangBaidu (China)	37.2	3,024	29	16
156	Martin MagnussonÖrebro University	37.2	3,616	26	16
157	Farshid AlambeigiThe University of Texas at Austin	37.1	1,871	24	23
158	Jean OhCarnegie Mellon University	37.1	3,118	26	17
159	Pratap TokekarUniversity of Maryland, College Park	37.0	2,291	27	19
160	Yanjun CaoZhejiang University	37.0	1,707	18	27
161	Chuchu FanMassachusetts Institute of Technology	36.8	2,297	26	19
162	James Richard ForbesMcGill University	36.8	2,601	26	18
163	Zhibin LiUniversity College London	36.8	2,821	28	16
164	Byung‐Cheol MinPurdue University West Lafayette	36.5	2,165	22	21
165	Lantao LiuIndiana University	36.5	1,757	24	22
166	Qi YeSouth China Normal University	36.3	2,577	25	17
167	Yi Min YangBeijing Institute of Technology	36.3	2,592	25	17
168	Ahmed H. QureshiPurdue University West Lafayette	36.2	1,865	18	24
169	Huimin LuNational University of Defense Technology	36.2	1,940	24	20
170	Jianmin JiUniversity of Science and Technology of China	36.0	1,519	20	24
171	Joydeep BiswasThe University of Texas at Austin	36.0	2,712	26	15
172	Zachary R. ManchesterCarnegie Mellon University	35.9	2,044	25	18
173	Guyue ZhouTsinghua University	35.7	1,208	21	25
174	Kento KawaharazukaThe University of Tokyo	35.5	1,477	18	24
175	Teresa Vidal‐CallejaUniversity of Technology Sydney	35.3	2,258	24	16
176	Guillaume SartorettiNational University of Singapore	34.5	1,762	19	19
177	Devesh K. JhaMitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories (United States)	33.4	1,691	19	16
178	Hangxin LiuBeijing Institute for General Artificial Intelligence	33.4	1,305	20	18
179	Tiziano GuadagninoUniversity of Bonn	32.8	1,201	15	20
180	Federico MagistriUniversity of Bonn	32.6	1,031	18	19
181	Katherine A. SkinnerUniversity of Michigan	32.2	1,552	16	15
182	Maani GhaffariUniversity of Michigan	32.2	1,274	16	17
183	Nadia FigueroaUniversity of Pennsylvania	32.1	1,077	18	17
184	Hamidreza KasaeiUniversity of Groningen	32.0	1,186	18	16
185	Abdeldjallil NaceriTechnical University of Munich	31.2	797	12	21
186	Kwok Wai Samuel AuChinese University of Hong Kong	31.0	798	16	18
187	Yunfan RenUniversity of Hong Kong	30.8	926	16	16
188	Luis FigueredoTechnical University of Munich	30.5	844	16	16
189	Shunbo ZhouHuawei Technologies (China)	30.2	875	14	16
190	Zhongqiang RenCarnegie Mellon University	29.8	586	13	19
191	Minh Nhat VuAIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH	28.1	414	12	18

Founders & builders

150 founders of 83 robotics companies. Not scored: money raised is not a fair measure of what a founder has built. Each row links to the page that states the role. Where this list comes from

Founders of robotics companies, with sources
Founder	Company	Role	Founded	Source
Bernt Øyvind Børnich	1X Technologies	Founder and CEO	2014	1x.tech
William Sachiti	Academy of Robotics	Founder	2017	en.wikipedia.org
Antony Lovedale	Active Robots	Founder	2002	en.wikipedia.org
Deng Taihua	AgiBot (Zhiyuan Robotics)	Founder, Chairman and CEO	2023	eu.36kr.com
Peng Zhihui	AgiBot (Zhiyuan Robotics)	Co-founder, President and CTO	2023	eu.36kr.com
Peter Meusel	Agile Robots	Co-founder	2018	en.wikipedia.org
Zhaopeng Chen	Agile Robots	Co-founder	2018	en.wikipedia.org
Damion Shelton	Agility Robotics	Co-founder	2015	en.wikipedia.org
Jonathon Hurst	Agility Robotics	Co-founder	2015	en.wikipedia.org
Mikhail Jones	Agility Robotics	Co-founder	2015	en.wikipedia.org
Hanspeter Fässler	ANYbotics	Co-founder	2016	en.wikipedia.org
Péter Fankhauser	ANYbotics	Co-founder	2016	en.wikipedia.org
Trevor Blackwell	Anybots	Founder	2001	en.wikipedia.org
Arnold Reinhold	Automatix	Co-founder	1980	en.wikipedia.org
Dan Nigro	Automatix	Co-founder	1980	en.wikipedia.org
Donald L. Pieper	Automatix	Co-founder	1980	en.wikipedia.org
Gordon VanderBrug	Automatix	Co-founder	1980	en.wikipedia.org
Jake Dias	Automatix	Co-founder	1980	en.wikipedia.org
Michael Cronin	Automatix	Co-founder	1980	en.wikipedia.org
Norman Wittels	Automatix	Co-founder	1980	en.wikipedia.org
Phillippe Villers	Automatix	Co-founder	1980	en.wikipedia.org
Victor Scheinman	Automatix	Co-founder	1980	en.wikipedia.org
Bill Townsend	Barrett Technology	Founder	1988	en.wikipedia.org
Xiong Youjun	Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center (X-Humanoid)	Founder and General Manager	2023	cls.cn
Tom Wagner	Berkshire Grey	Founder	2013	en.wikipedia.org
Martin Hitch	Bossa Nova Robotics	Co-founder	2005	en.wikipedia.org
Sarjoun Skaff	Bossa Nova Robotics	Co-founder	2005	en.wikipedia.org
Marc Raibert	Boston Dynamics	Founder	1992	bostondynamics.com
Erwin Bernecker	B&R	Co-founder	1979	en.wikipedia.org
Josef Rainer	B&R	Co-founder	1979	en.wikipedia.org
Bryan Webb	Clearpath Robotics	Co-founder	2009	en.wikipedia.org
Matthew Rendall	Clearpath Robotics	Co-founder	2009	en.wikipedia.org
Pat Martinson	Clearpath Robotics	Co-founder	2009	en.wikipedia.org
Ryan Gariepy	Clearpath Robotics	Co-founder	2009	en.wikipedia.org
Bill Huang	CloudMinds	Co-founder	2015	en.wikipedia.org
Robert Zhang	CloudMinds	Co-founder	2015	en.wikipedia.org
Peter Chen	Covariant	Co-founder and former CEO; joined Amazon in 2024	2017	aboutamazon.com
Pieter Abbeel	Covariant	Co-founder, former President and Chief Scientist; joined Amazon in 2024	2017	aboutamazon.com
Rocky Duan	Covariant	Co-founder; joined Amazon in 2024	2017	aboutamazon.com
Tianhao Zhang	Covariant	Co-founder	2017	en.wikipedia.org
Yoshiyuki Sankai	Cyberdyne Inc.	Founder	2004	en.wikipedia.org
Joseph Sullivan	Daxbot	Founder	n/a	en.wikipedia.org
Li Chao	DEEP Robotics	Co-founder	2017	en.wikipedia.org
Zhu Qiuguo	DEEP Robotics	Co-founder	2017	en.wikipedia.org
Charles Khairallah	Robotics Design Inc.	Founder	1997	en.wikipedia.org
Lang Xulin	Dobot	Co-founder	2015	en.wikipedia.org
Liu Peichao	Dobot	Co-founder	2015	en.wikipedia.org
Alban Deruaz-Pepin	Donecle	Co-founder	2015	en.wikipedia.org
Josselin Bequet	Donecle	Co-founder	2015	en.wikipedia.org
Matthieu Claybrough	Donecle	Co-founder	2015	en.wikipedia.org
Yann Bruner	Donecle	Co-founder	2015	en.wikipedia.org
Jason Ma	Dyna Robotics	Co-founder	n/a	roboticstomorrow.com
Lindon Gao	Dyna Robotics	Co-founder and CEO	n/a	roboticstomorrow.com
York Yang	Dyna Robotics	Co-founder	n/a	roboticstomorrow.com
Qian Dongqi	Ecovacs Robotics	Founder	1998	en.wikipedia.org
Homayoon Kazerooni	Ekso Bionics	Co-founder	2005	en.wikipedia.org
Nathan Harding	Ekso Bionics	Co-founder	2005	en.wikipedia.org
Russ Angold	Ekso Bionics	Co-founder	2005	en.wikipedia.org
Ren Guowen	EngineAI	Co-founder	2023	en.wikipedia.org
Zhao Tongyang	EngineAI	Co-founder	2023	en.wikipedia.org
Will Jackson	Engineered Arts	Founder	2004	en.wikipedia.org
Wu Bo	Estun Automation	Founder	1993	en.wikipedia.org
Hung Pham	Eureka Robotics	Co-founder	2018	en.wikipedia.org
Pham Quang Cuong	Eureka Robotics	Co-founder	2018	en.wikipedia.org
Renaud Heitz	Exotec	Co-founder	2015	en.wikipedia.org
Romain Moulin	Exotec	Co-founder	2015	en.wikipedia.org
Seiuemon Inaba	FANUC	Founder	1958	en.wikipedia.org
Sebastien Boyer	FarmWise	Co-founder	2016	en.wikipedia.org
Thomas Palomares	FarmWise	Co-founder	2016	en.wikipedia.org
Ali Agha	FieldAI	Founder and CEO	2023	fieldai.com
Brett Adcock	Figure AI	Founder & CEO	2022	figure.ai
Arjun Sethi	Foundation, Inc.	Co-founder	2024	en.wikipedia.org
Mike LeBlanc	Foundation, Inc.	Co-founder	2024	en.wikipedia.org
Sankaet Pathak	Foundation, Inc.	Co-founder	2024	en.wikipedia.org
Alex Gu	Fourier	Co-founder	2015	en.wikipedia.org
Zen Koh	Fourier	Co-founder	2015	en.wikipedia.org
Gao Jiyang	Galaxea AI	Co-founder and CEO	2023	news.pedaily.cn
Li Tianwei	Galaxea AI	Co-founder	2023	news.pedaily.cn
Zhao Hang	Galaxea AI	Co-founder	2023	news.pedaily.cn
Wang He	Galbot	Founder and CTO	2023	news.cn
Yao Tengzhou	Galbot	Co-founder	2023	21jingji.com
Zheng Yong	Geek+	Founder	2015	en.wikipedia.org
Andrew Barry	Generalist AI	Co-founder	2024	techcrunch.com
Andy Zeng	Generalist AI	Co-founder	2024	techcrunch.com
Pete Florence	Generalist AI	Co-founder	2024	techcrunch.com
Théophile Gervet	Genesis AI	Co-founder and President	2024	techcrunch.com
Zhou Xian	Genesis AI	Co-founder and CEO	2024	techcrunch.com
Demis Hassabis	Google DeepMind	Co-founder and CEO	2010	deepmind.google
David Hanson	Hanson Robotics	Founder	2007	en.wikipedia.org
Yung-Tsai Chuo	HIWIN	Founder	1989	en.wikipedia.org
Chris Chapman	Honeybee Robotics	Co-founder	1983	en.wikipedia.org
Steve Gorevan	Honeybee Robotics	Co-founder	1983	en.wikipedia.org
Clément Delangue	Hugging Face	Co-founder and CEO	2016	huggingface.co
Julien Chaumond	Hugging Face	Co-founder and CTO	2016	huggingface.co
Thomas Wolf	Hugging Face	Co-founder and Chief Scientist	2016	huggingface.co
Colin Angle	IRobot	Co-founder	1990	en.wikipedia.org
Helen Greiner	IRobot	Co-founder	1990	en.wikipedia.org
Rodney Brooks	IRobot	Co-founder	1990	en.wikipedia.org
Stacy Stephens	Knightscope	Co-founder	2013	en.wikipedia.org
William Santana Li	Knightscope	Co-founder	2013	en.wikipedia.org
Gerry Vannuffelen	Mantis Robotics	Founder	2020	en.wikipedia.org
Kuldar Väärsi	Milrem Robotics	Founder	2013	en.wikipedia.org
Elvis Nava	mimic robotics	Co-founder and CTO	2024	deeptechnation.ch
Stefan Weirich	mimic robotics	Co-founder and CEO	2024	deeptechnation.ch
Stephan-Daniel Gravert	mimic robotics	Co-founder and CPO	2024	deeptechnation.ch
RJ Scaringe	Mind Robotics	Founder	2025	en.wikipedia.org
Mark Oleynik	Moley Robotics	Founder	2015	en.wikipedia.org
David Peters	Neocortex AI	Founder	2021	en.wikipedia.org
David Reger	NEURA Robotics	Founder and CEO	2019	neura-robotics.com
Jensen Huang	NVIDIA	Founder and CEO	1993	nvidianews.nvidia.com
Lyn Fang	OlloBot	Founder	n/a	en.wikipedia.org
Stephen Jacobsen	Palladyne AI	Founder	1983	en.wikipedia.org
Adnan Esmail	Physical Intelligence	Co-founder	2024	sequoiacap.com
Brian Ichter	Physical Intelligence	Co-founder	2024	sequoiacap.com
Chelsea Finn	Physical Intelligence	Co-founder	2024	ai.stanford.edu
Karol Hausman	Physical Intelligence	Co-founder and CEO	2024	therobotreport.com
Lachy Groom	Physical Intelligence	Co-founder	2024	finance.yahoo.com
Sergey Levine	Physical Intelligence	Co-founder; Associate Professor, UC Berkeley	2024	techcrunch.com
Ann Whittaker	Rethink Robotics	Co-founder	2008	en.wikipedia.org
Rodney Brooks	Rethink Robotics	Co-founder	2008	en.wikipedia.org
Shai Abramson	Robomow	Co-founder	1995	en.wikipedia.org
Udi Peless	Robomow	Co-founder	1995	en.wikipedia.org
Elad Inbar	RobotLAB	Founder	2007	en.wikipedia.org
Ali Kashani	Serve Robotics	Founder	2017	en.wikipedia.org
Qu Daokui	Siasun Robotics	Founder	2000	en.wikipedia.org
Abhinav Gupta	Skild AI	Co-founder and President	2023	lsvp.com
Deepak Pathak	Skild AI	Co-founder and CEO	2023	lsvp.com
Adam Wilson	Sphero	Co-founder	2010	en.wikipedia.org
Ian Bernstein	Sphero	Co-founder	2010	en.wikipedia.org
Gao Yang	Spirit AI (Qianxun Intelligence)	Co-founder	2024	stcn.com
Han Fengtao	Spirit AI (Qianxun Intelligence)	Founder and CEO	2024	stcn.com
David Sands	ST Robotics	Founder	1981	en.wikipedia.org
Ahti Heinla	Starship Technologies	Co-founder	2014	en.wikipedia.org
Janus Friis	Starship Technologies	Co-founder	2014	en.wikipedia.org
Lukas Silberbauer	Taurob	Co-founder	2010	en.wikipedia.org
Matthias Biegl	Taurob	Co-founder	2010	en.wikipedia.org
Zhou Jian	UBTECH	Founder	2012	en.wikipedia.org
George Devol	Unimation	Co-founder	1962	en.wikipedia.org
Joseph F. Engelberger	Unimation	Co-founder	1962	en.wikipedia.org
Xingxing Wang	Unitree Robotics	Founder & CEO	2016	caixinglobal.com
Alex Kendall	Wayve	Co-founder and CEO	2017	wayve.ai
Jørgen Hallundbæk	Welltec	Founder	1994	en.wikipedia.org
Thomas Burick	White Box Robotics	Founder	2000	en.wikipedia.org
Scott Hassan	Willow Garage	Founder	2006	en.wikipedia.org
Mikal Greaves	Wonder Workshop	Co-founder	2012	en.wikipedia.org
Saurabh Gupta	Wonder Workshop	Co-founder	2012	en.wikipedia.org
Vikas Gupta	Wonder Workshop	Co-founder	2012	en.wikipedia.org
Wang Hao	X Square Robot	Co-founder	2023	caixinglobal.com
Wang Qian	X Square Robot	Founder and CEO	2023	therobotreport.com
Ricky Ye	Zhiwei Robotics Corp.	Founder	2008	en.wikipedia.org
Hisashi Taniguchi	ZMP INC.	Founder	2001	en.wikipedia.org

How we rank

Every number comes from each researcher's OpenAlex author record (open, CC0 data), refreshed 2026-10-19. The score is computed within this board, so the top value in each metric sets the scale:

Citations (40%): total citations, on a log scale so a few landmark papers don't dominate.
h-index (30%): sustained impact across many papers.
Recent robotics papers (30%): papers published 2023–2025 in ICRA, IROS, RA-L, T-RO, IJRR, Science Robotics.

Who is on the board: everyone with a profile here, plus the 200 authors with the most papers at those venues in 2023–2025. From that pool we leave out records without an ORCID iD and records that list 18 or more institutions since 2022, a sign that OpenAlex has merged several people who share a name (14 records this time). The affiliation shown is the institution on the most years of the person's own OpenAlex affiliation history since 2022.

Known limits: CoRL and RSS papers aren't counted, because OpenAlex indexes most of them under arXiv. Some people's work is split across several author records, so totals can be lower than Google Scholar's. Open-source impact isn't scored because there is no consistent public source for it.

Founders & builders

The founders list combines the founders named on our robot-model company profiles, each with the press release or company page it cites, and the founders listed in the infoboxes of Wikipedia's robotics-company articles, cited to the article revision we read on 2026-10-19. We keep companies founded in 1960 or later whose main business is robots, plus any company already profiled on Institutions. Only public, professional facts are shown: name, company, role and founding year.

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