Agricultural Drone Spraying Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
- Filings nearly quadrupled from 2021 to 2024, rising 4 to 18 (+350%) as commercial spray-drone platforms moved from prototype to field deployment.
- The leader holds 17 records, but the top 5 assignees combine for only 39.0% of the 118 records in scope — well short of a locked-down field.
- The United States and India dominate filing offices, with 44 and 32 records respectively, well ahead of the WIPO/PCT route at 13.
Filing growth compares 2021 (4 records) with 2024 (18) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 118 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the patent record shows
Agricultural drone spraying sits at the intersection of unmanned aircraft, spray hardware and agrochemical delivery. The dataset in scope covers 118 published records filed between 2015 and mid-2026, drawn from a search string that pairs drone and aerial-spraying terms with the operational concerns that separate a working system from a lab prototype: downwash effect, payload capacity, flight altitude, droplet deposition, battery swap and regulatory permit. That combination matters because the field is not simply “drones with tanks” — it is a layered engineering problem where airframe patents, control-system patents and spray-nozzle patents overlap in the same records.
Filing activity was thin before 2021 and accelerated sharply after, tracking the commercialisation of purpose-built agricultural drone platforms rather than repurposed consumer airframes. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 counts in the trend understate real filing activity for those years and should be read as provisional.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 118 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claims.
Filing trend
Filings rose from 2 in 2017 to a peak of 20 in 2025, with the clearest complete-year growth run being 2021's 4 filings to 2024's 18 — a +350% increase. 2026 is only partially represented in the data cut-off and will fill in as later publications appear.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
B64C (aeroplanes and helicopters) and B64U (unmanned aerial vehicles) each cover close to half of the 118 records, at 49.2% and 44.9% respectively, confirming that airframe and drone-platform claims are the densest zone. B64D (aircraft equipment) follows at 40.7%. Spraying-specific classes are comparatively thin: A01M (pest and vermin control) at 22.0%, G05D (non-electric control) at 20.3%, and B05B (spraying and atomising) at just 8.5% of records — since a record can carry multiple classes, these shares sum to more than 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 118 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Agricultural Drone Spraying with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about agricultural drone spraying and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records and a recent filing
Atomizer for aerial spraying and control method thereof (US20260108896A1)
The filing describes an atomizer for aerial spraying built around a rotary cage atomizer connected to a deflection mechanical arm via an adapter, driven through a transmission assembly by a brushless motor. The deflection arm lets the operator adjust the atomizer's angle during flight, coupling droplet-dispersal control directly to a mechanical actuation system rather than relying on fixed-angle nozzles.Filed by Research Center of Intelligent Equipment, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, published 2026-04-23.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6377889B1 | Non-linear method of guiding to arbitrary curves with adaptive feedback | 225 |
| 2 | US20120091259A1 | Towable air vehicle | 136 |
| 3 | US20110139928A1 | Autogyro air vehicle | 87 |
| 4 | US8646719B2 | Marine vessel-towable aerovehicle system with automated tow line release | 63 |
| 5 | US20140231593A1 | Multi-Role Aircraft With Interchangeable Mission Modules | 59 |
| 6 | US20120292435A1 | Multi-Role Aircraft with Interchangeable Mission Modules | 53 |
| 7 | US20190389577A1 | Automated drone-based spraying system | 42 |
| 8 | US20130079228A1 | Agricultural spray solution compositions and methods | 42 |
| 9 | US20130008998A1 | Towable air vehicle | 36 |
| 10 | US8540183B2 | Aerovehicle system including plurality of autogyro assemblies | 30 |
Citation counts favour older records simply because they have had more time to accumulate citations within the searched corpus — treat this as a measure of influence on later filings, not of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Assignee concentration, growth pattern and filing-office spread together describe a field that is growing fast but not yet consolidated.
A leader, not a lock
The single leading assignee holds 17 records, and the top 5 combined account for 39.0% of the 118 records in scope. That leaves 61.0% distributed across a long tail — a pattern consistent with a field still being defined rather than one already owned.
Sharp but recent acceleration
Complete-year filings grew from 4 in 2021 to 18 in 2024, a +350% rise over three years. 2025's count of 20 suggests the trend continued, but later years are still filling in under the ~18-month publication lag.
Two dominant filing offices
The United States and India together account for the bulk of receiving-office activity, with 44 and 32 records respectively, ahead of the WIPO/PCT route at 13 and Europe at 7. Filing strategy in this field is currently anchored in two national systems rather than routed primarily through PCT.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to agricultural drone spraying, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| MORRIS JOHN WILLIAM | JARNOT CHARLES A | 4 |
| HELIPLANE | MORRIS JOHN | 2 |
| HELIPLANE | JARNOT CHUCK | 2 |
| MORRIS JOHN WILLIAM | JARNOT CHARLES | 2 |
Only 4 co-assignee pairs appear across the dataset, with the strongest pairing recurring at just 4 shared records — most filings in this field are single-assignee efforts.
Who is filing, and where momentum sits now
The assignee ranking covers 100 companies counted in records — the full set the data endpoint returns, not a curated top tier. Recent-year momentum is uneven even among the more active names.
Ahead but not dominant
The top-ranked assignee holds 17 of the 118 records, well above fifth place at 4 and tenth place at 2 — a steep early drop-off that flattens into a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants.
Recent activity has cooled across most named assignees
Among the assignees tracked for recent-year momentum, only one shows filings in the latest year (2), while several historically active names — including one with a -100% year-over-year change — show none. This is consistent with the 18-month publication lag rather than a genuine slowdown.
Collaboration is the exception
Only 4 co-assignee pairs exist in the dataset, the strongest recurring across 4 shared records. Most organisations here are filing independently rather than through joint development arrangements.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| EXACTO INC | 2 | — |
| KAREM ABE | 0 | — |
| PRECISION AI INC | 0 | -100% |
| HELIPLANE | 0 | — |
| MORRIS JOHN WILLIAM | 0 | — |
| JARNOT CHARLES A | 0 | — |
| Toyota Motor Corporation | 0 | — |
| TOBIASON TIMOTHY WAYNE | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The trend and concentration data point to a field that is still open at the edges even as the airframe core gets crowded.
Watch the spray-specific classes
B05B (spraying and atomising) sits at just 8.5% of records against B64C's 49.2% — the mechanical spray hardware is comparatively under-claimed relative to the airframe it rides on.
Explore spray-system filings in EurekaTrack momentum, not just rank
Several of the most-ranked assignees show no filings in the latest tracked year; a ranking snapshot alone will miss which players are actually still active.
Set up assignee monitoring in EurekaRecheck after the lag window closes
2025 and 2026 filings are still incomplete in this dataset; revisiting the trend in 12–18 months will sharpen the true growth curve.
Run a fresh landscape in EurekaCommon questions about agricultural drone spraying patents
One assignee leads the ranked field with 17 records out of 118 in scope, noticeably ahead of fifth place at 4 and tenth place at 2. That said, the top 5 assignees combined only reach 39.0% of all records, so no single company controls the field outright. The remaining 100 ranked assignees split the rest across a long tail, meaning freedom-to-operate analysis needs to look well beyond the top names.
Filings rose from 4 in 2021 to 18 in 2024, a +350% increase over that three-year span, with a peak of 20 filings in 2025. Because patent publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, 2025 and especially 2026 figures are undercounts that will rise as more applications publish. Treat 2024 as the most recent year with a reasonably complete count.
Airframe and platform classes dominate: B64C (aeroplanes and helicopters) covers 49.2% of the 118 records and B64U (unmanned aerial vehicles) covers 44.9%, with B64D (aircraft equipment) at 40.7%. Spray-specific classes are comparatively lighter, with B05B (spraying and atomising) at only 8.5% and A01N (biocides and agrochemicals) at 9.3%. A single record can carry several IPC classes, so these figures overlap rather than sum to 100%.
The data points toward the spray-mechanism and sensing layers rather than the airframe layer, since B05B (spraying and atomising) sits at 8.5% of records versus B64C's 49.2%. Sub-areas like droplet deposition feedback, downwash-compensated nozzle control and battery-swap systems for continuous spray cycles show thinner coverage relative to the crowded platform core. Co-filing is also rare across the dataset — only 4 co-assignee pairs exist — suggesting joint-development filings are an underused strategy too.
The United States leads with 44 records, followed by India at 32, well ahead of the WIPO/PCT route at 13, Europe at 7, and Canada and China at 4 each. This concentration in US and Indian national filings, rather than PCT, suggests applicants are prioritising direct protection in these two markets over broad international routing. Anyone assessing freedom to operate should check both jurisdictions' national registers directly rather than relying on PCT records alone.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.