Technical Trends and Competitive Situation in Respect of Metahuman—From Product Modules and Technical Topics to Patent Data

As a form of technological integration, metahuman has a significant influence on sustainable production because of its consistent technological evolution. However, few studies have provided insights into the technical assessment of metahuman by employing patents. In this paper, patent analysis is conducted to identify technological trends and the competitive situation in respect of metahuman from a product modularity perspective. First, we identify 17 highly relevant metahuman keywords by combining a literature analysis and an expert interview method and identify 42,256 patents from the Derwent Innovation Index (DII), thus improving the accuracy and validity of the data collection process. Then, metahuman product modularity is implemented using the function-behavior-structure (FBS) model, and seven technical topics are extracted from patents via latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA). Lastly, the procedure for identifying technology areas in respect of metahuman is improved by applying an optimized method to establish the connecting paths of product modules, technical topics, and patent data. The analysis results show that the development of metahuman technology can be divided into three periods. Different patent priority countries have distinctive competitive advantages and characteristics at the product module level. The findings of this study are intended to aid R&D enterprises and the government in formulating sustainable decision-making and promoting the development of the metahuman industry.