We present a large-scale survey of sustainability communication and motivation in robotics research. Our analysis covers nearly 50,000 open-access papers from arXiv's cs.RO category published between 2015 and early 2026. In this study, we quantify how often papers mention social, ecological, and sustainability impacts, and we analyse their alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The results reveal a persistent gap between the field's potential and its stated intent. While a large fraction of robotics papers can be mapped to SDG-relevant domains, explicit sustainability motivation remains remarkably low. Specifically, mentions of sustainability-related impacts are typically below 2%, explicit SDG references stay below 0.1%, and the proportion of sustainability-motivated papers remains below 5%. These trends suggest that while the field of robotics is advancing rapidly, sustainability is not yet a standard part of research framing. We conclude by proposing concrete actions for researchers, conferences, and institutions to close these awareness and motivation gaps, supporting a shift toward more intentional and responsible innovation.

翻译：本文对机器人学领域内的可持续性沟通与动机进行大规模调查分析。我们的研究涵盖arXiv平台cs.RO分类中2015年至2026年初发表的近50,000篇开放获取论文。本研究量化了论文提及社会、生态及可持续性影响的频率，并分析其与联合国可持续发展目标（SDGs）的契合程度。结果显示，该领域的潜在影响与其明确表述的意图之间存在持续差距：尽管大量机器人学论文可映射至SDG相关领域，但明确的可持续性动机依然显著不足。具体而言，提及可持续性影响的论文比例通常低于2%，明确引用SDG的论文比例不足0.1%，而具有可持续性动机的论文比例仍低于5%。这些趋势表明，尽管机器人学领域正在快速发展，但可持续性尚未成为研究框架的标准组成部分。最后，我们提出面向研究者、学术会议及机构的具体行动建议，以期弥合认知与动机层面的差距，推动向更具自觉性与责任感的创新范式转型。