Patent Recommendation Based on Boundary-Spanning Technology Search: An Empirical Study from the Robotics Field

A three-dimensional boundary-spanning technology search model including search depth,scope and height is established, and a quantitative calculation method is proposed to dynamically describe an organisation’s technology search behaviour and demand characteristics. Organisations are clustered by types as technical, comprehensive, or professional using k-means based on technology search behaviour. Recommendation strategies for various types of organisations are proposed based on this,and the search and supply libraries of each organisation are built by considering their type and search contents. The semantic similarity between patents in different libraries is calculated using a Word2Vec and Text Rank model to achieve patent recommendations. An empirical study of the robotics field shows a recommendation accuracy of 0.751, and the accuracy of the technical, comprehensive, and professional types is 0.8282, 0.5389 and 0.7723, respectively. This study considers an organisation’s dynamic search behaviour and makes class-based recommendations, with a low computational complexity and strong interpretability.