Agricultural Machinery Automation Patents: Leaders & Trends 2026
- Filing is still accelerating, not plateauing. annual filings ran from 1 in 2017 to a 2019 peak of 12, dipped through the low-filing years around 2022, and have climbed back to 8 by 2026 with the year still open.
- Soil-working and control logic dominate the claim space. A01B (soil working) appears in 31 of 42 families and G05D (non-electric variable control) in 23, while image recognition (G06V) and hybrid vehicle control (B60W) each sit at just 4.
- India leads office of filing, ahead of Europe and China. 16 of the tracked filings were received by the Indian patent office, more than EPO (9), China (5) and the US (4) combined among the smaller offices.
What this patent landscape covers
Agricultural machinery automation sits at the intersection of mechanical implement design and autonomous control: auto-steering, implement control, obstacle detection, row following and harvesting automation applied to tractors, robots and load-handling vehicles. The dataset tracked here spans records filed from 2015 onward and classified under soil-working (A01B), planting (A01C), harvesting (A01D) and non-electric variable control (G05D) codes, plus adjacent manipulator, vehicle-control and vision classes.
Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the most recent one or two years in any trend line will understate real filing activity. The pattern that matters is not the single latest data point but the trajectory across the full window, and here that trajectory is upward from a genuinely low base.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Forty-two published patent families make up this landscape, concentrated in soil-working and control-logic classifications and split across a wide spread of receiving offices rather than a single dominant jurisdiction.
A recovering filing curve after a mid-decade lull
Filings opened at 1 in 2017, rose to a peak of 12 in 2019, fell back to 2 by the 2022 midpoint, and have since climbed to 8 in 2026 with the year not yet closed. That shape reads as an early wave of pioneer filings followed by a quieter consolidation period and a fresh build-up now underway.
Soil working and control logic carry the claim weight
A01B (soil working) and G05D (control of non-electric variables) together account for the bulk of classified records, 31 and 23 of 42 respectively. Pest control (A01M), planting (A01C) and manipulators (B25J) form a mid-tier of activity, while image recognition (G06V) and hybrid vehicle control (B60W) remain thin at 4 records apiece.
Shares are the percentage of the 42 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Agricultural Machinery Automation with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about agricultural machinery automation and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited families in this landscape
Autonomous agricultural robot (US20240130266A1)
A straddle-chassis robot built to travel between rows of crops, with propulsion, a control unit and an obstacle-characterization device that detects obstacles in its path and logs or processes the collected data to determine how to respond.Filed by Naio Technologies; published 2024-04-25.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WO2020106143A1 | Autonomous tractor and method to cultivate farmland using this tractor | 18 |
| 2 | WO2020106142A1 | Autonomous tractor and method to cultivate farmland using this tractor | 13 |
| 3 | CN109407668A | 一种农业机器人远程视频遥控系统及控制方法 | 13 |
| 4 | EP3827654A1 | Agricultural robot for performing multiple functions in argicultural systems | 8 |
| 5 | WO2020152123A1 | A method for ploughing farmland and an autonomous tractor for employing the method | 7 |
| 6 | EP3395140A1 | Autonomous tractor | 4 |
| 7 | US20240130266A1 | Autonomous agricultural robot | 3 |
| 8 | US12005930B2 | Autonomous tractor and method to cultivate farmland using this tractor | 3 |
| 9 | CN120628084A | 基于机器视觉的种植机械导航路径修正与障碍物检测方法 | 1 |
| 10 | EP3883359B1 | Autonomous tractor and method to cultivate farmland using this tractor | 1 |
Citation counts reflect influence within the searched corpus and skew toward older filings; a low count on a recent family does not mean it is unimportant.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the filing pattern signals
The composition and timing of filings point to a field where mechanical control claims are well-trodden but perception and hybrid-power integration remain comparatively open.
Growth resumed after a 2022 trough
The 2019 peak of 12 filings was followed by a drop to 2 by 2022, then renewed growth to 8 in 2026. This is not a single sustained wave but two phases of activity separated by a quiet period, suggesting a second generation of filers entering after early pioneers established baseline claims.
Soil-working mechanics are the densest claim territory
Nearly three-quarters of records classify under soil working, meaning implement and cultivation mechanics are the most contested ground. Control logic (G05D) is a close second, indicating that steering and navigation algorithms are filed alongside, not instead of, the mechanical claims.
India is the largest single receiving office
India accounts for more tracked filings than any other office, ahead of the European Patent Office and China. That is a notable departure from many machinery landscapes where a home-market office dominates, and it points to India as an active filing venue worth monitoring for freedom-to-operate.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to agricultural machinery automation, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds position, and where the field is still open
No single assignee dominates this landscape; recent-year momentum shows most tracked filers, including early movers, with zero filings in the latest year, consistent with a field still absorbing new entrants rather than one locked up by incumbents.
AgXeed's filing pace has cooled
AgXeed (filed as both AgXeed Holding BV and AgXeed BV) built early position in autonomous tractor claims but shows no filings in the most recent year tracked, which may reflect a pause in filing rather than a pause in R&D given publication lag.
Naio Technologies anchors the row-following robot segment
Naio Technologies' straddle-chassis obstacle-detection design (US20240130266A1) is a representative record for the field's robotics branch, even though its tracked filing count shows no activity in the latest year in this dataset.
Chinese universities filed in bursts, not steadily
Institutions including Zhengzhou University, Northwest A&F University and Yancheng Institute of Technology show a full year-on-year drop to zero, a pattern typical of academic filing tied to individual research grants rather than sustained commercial programmes.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| AGXEED HLDG BV | 0 | — |
| AGXEED BV | 0 | — |
| NAIO TECHNOLOGIES | 0 | — |
| Zhengzhou University | 0 | -100% |
| Northwest A&F University | 0 | — |
| Yancheng Institute of Technology | 0 | -100% |
| Jiangsu University | 0 | — |
| Anhui Agricultural University | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
This landscape identifies the concentration points and the open branches; deciding where to file or how to design around existing claims requires going deeper into the individual family scope.
Map claim scope on the highest-cited families
Start with the most-cited autonomous tractor and robot families to see exactly what independent claims cover before drafting anything adjacent.
Explore claims in EurekaTrack the under-claimed branches
Vision-based row detection and hybrid powertrain control show thin filing density now; monitor them for new entrants before committing R&D budget.
Set up monitoring in EurekaCommon questions on agricultural machinery automation patents
The dataset shows no single dominant assignee; instead there is a mix of specialist companies like AgXeed and Naio Technologies alongside several Chinese university filers such as Zhengzhou University and Northwest A&F University. Most of these show no filings in the latest tracked year, which is consistent with either a pause in activity or the normal 18-month lag between filing and publication. This is a field where position is still being established rather than one with an entrenched leader.
Soil-working mechanics (IPC class A01B) appear in 31 of the 42 tracked families, making implement and cultivation design the most contested claim territory. Control of non-electric variables (G05D), covering steering and navigation logic, is close behind at 23 records. Image recognition and hybrid vehicle control are comparatively thin at just 4 records each, marking them as less crowded areas.
Yes. Filings rose from 1 in 2017 to a peak of 12 in 2019, dropped to 2 by 2022, and have climbed back to 8 by 2026 with that year still incomplete. The overall shape is one of renewed acceleration after a mid-decade lull rather than a steady climb, so a simple year-over-year comparison would miss the earlier peak.
India leads with 16 tracked filings, ahead of the European Patent Office at 9, China at 5, the United States at 4, and WIPO PCT filings also at 4. This distribution is unusually spread across offices compared to many machinery fields where a single home market dominates, so freedom-to-operate reviews should not assume any one jurisdiction is the primary risk.
The clearest under-claimed branches are vision-based row detection, hybrid powertrain implement control, multi-robot fleet coordination, and obstacle re-identification after occlusion. Each of these sits well below the filing density of the core soil-working and control classes, meaning a well-drafted first claim could establish meaningful position. That said, low density can also mean low commercial interest, so it is worth checking against product roadmaps before filing.
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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.