AGV Control System Patents: Who Files Where & Trends 2026
- Filings peaked in 2019 at 32 and have since flattened to roughly 21 at the 2022 midpoint , pointing to a mature, not accelerating, filing category — most recent years remain understated by the usual publication lag.
- China accounts for 129 of 217 records at the receiving office , nearly four times the United States total, showing where current filing pressure sits versus where the foundational 1990s grants originated.
- Material-handling branches — B65G, B25J and B66F — sit in single digits each against 173 G05D records, marking the thinnest, most under-claimed corners of an otherwise dense control-claim landscape.
Filing growth compares 2021 (24 records) with 2024 (2) — 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 217 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape covers automated guided vehicle control systems — the motion control, trajectory tracking, fleet control and closed-loop control claims filed against AGV or guided-vehicle terminology and classified under G05D (non-electric variable control), G05B (regulating systems) or B25J (manipulators). The 217 patent families span 2015 through the 2026 data cut-off, drawing on receiving offices in China, the United States, Europe, Canada and India.
Because the search targets the control layer specifically rather than AGV hardware broadly, the dataset skews toward software and sensor-fusion claims: navigation and gyroscope classifications (G01C) and vehicle-steering classifications (B62D) appear as supporting technology rather than the core claim territory. Family counts, not raw document counts, are used throughout to avoid overweighting continuation-heavy filers.
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Filing trends and technology composition
Filing activity across this search set peaked in 2019 and has trended flat-to-declining through the dataset's midpoint year, with the most recent year understated by the usual 18-month publication lag between filing and disclosure.
Annual filings, 2017-2026
Filings rose to a peak of 32 in 2019, held near 21 at the 2022 midpoint, and taper toward the present — a pattern of an established, not accelerating, filing category. The final year is partial and will revise upward as later disclosures publish.
IPC subclass composition
G05D (control of non-electric variables) dominates the corpus at 173 of 217 records, with G05B regulating systems and G01C navigation/gyroscope sensing as the two largest supporting subclasses. Vehicle-platform classes (B62D, B60L) and material-handling classes (B65G, B25J, B66F) each hold single-digit-to-low-double-digit shares, marking them as the thinner, less-occupied branches of the field.
Shares are the percentage of the 217 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
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WO2022023797A1 — Method and apparatus for emulating automated guided vehicle (AGV) system
A method for emulating an automated guided vehicle (AGV) system including: obtaining sensor data of a virtual AGV in an emulation environment; determining a device state of a virtual device interacting with the virtual AGV in the emulation environment; sending the sensor data and the device state to the AGV system, and receiving AGV motion control information and device operation information from the AGV system; and controlling motion of the virtual AGV and the virtual device. With the method, time and efforts spent by a deployment engineer on deployment and debugging are reduced, factory downtime is decreased, and an entire AGV system and an AGV sensor can be validated.Filed by Siemens Industry Software Ltd., published 2022-02-03. The claim scope sits on the emulation/validation loop between a virtual AGV and a live controller, not on physical AGV motion control itself.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5525884A | Automatically guided vehicle | 226 |
| 2 | US5187664A | Proportional position-sensing system for an automatic guided vehicle | 170 |
| 3 | US5280431A | Method for controlling the movements of a mobile robot in a multiple node factory | 152 |
| 4 | US5281901A | Downward compatible AGV system and methods | 149 |
| 5 | US5650703A | Downward compatible AGV system and methods | 138 |
| 6 | US5341130A | Downward compatible AGV system and methods | 130 |
| 7 | US5896297A | Robotube delivery system | 122 |
| 8 | US4947094A | Optical guidance system for industrial vehicles | 116 |
| 9 | US4940925A | Closed-loop navigation system for mobile robots | 115 |
| 10 | US20170017236A1 | Automated guided vehicle system based on autonomous mobile technique and a method for controlling the same | 98 |
Ranked by citation count within the searched corpus; older US grants dominate the top of the list, which reflects time-in-corpus rather than current enforcement relevance.
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Three patterns stand out once family counts, IPC composition and citation weight are read together: a mature filing curve, a concentration of claim density in one control subclass, and an unusually shallow co-filing network.
A flat-to-declining filing curve since 2019
Annual filings rose to 32 in 2019, held near 21 by the 2022 midpoint, and taper toward the present. That shape is consistent with an established category rather than one in early growth — new entrants are filing into occupied claim space, not opening a new field.
Non-electric-variable control absorbs most of the claim space
G05D alone covers 173 of the 217 records, roughly three times the next-largest subclass, G05B. Anyone drafting new trajectory-tracking or motion-control claims is filing into the densest part of the landscape by default unless the claim is deliberately tied to a thinner branch.
Very little cross-assignee collaboration on record
Only four co-assignee pairs appear across the whole dataset, the strongest being two affiliated Chinese e-commerce logistics entities filing jointly six times. Outside that pairing, co-assignment is essentially absent, suggesting most control-system IP here is developed and held in-house rather than through joint filing arrangements.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to automated guided vehicle control system, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gate sits
Filing activity spans established industrial-automation names, Chinese logistics and robotics firms, and a long tail of single-or-few-filing entrants. Recent-year momentum figures should be read against the publication lag rather than as a sign of pullback.
京东 logistics entities file jointly
Beijing Jingdong Shangke Information Technology Co., Ltd. and Beijing Jingdong Century Trading Co., Ltd. form the strongest co-assignee pair in the dataset at six shared filings, consistent with an in-house logistics-automation program rather than external licensing activity.
Siemens Industry Software targets emulation tooling
Siemens Industry Software Ltd. (Israel) holds the representative filing in this dataset, claiming a method for validating AGV systems through virtual-device emulation before factory deployment — a commissioning and debugging angle distinct from the motion-control core.
Texas Instruments Incorporated and long-standing filers show flat recent activity
Several of the assignees with the deepest filing history, including Texas Instruments Incorporated and Foley Automation, Inc., show no filings in the most recent tracked year. Given the roughly 18-month gap between filing and publication, this is more likely a reporting artifact than a real exit from the field.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Yi Tong-Kenwei Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Texas Instruments Incorporated | 0 | — |
| Foley Automation, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Beijing Jingdong Shangke Information Technology Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Beijing Jingdong Century Trading Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Siemens Industry Software Ltd. (Israel) | 0 | — |
| The Boeing Company | 0 | — |
| Suzhou AGV Robot Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
Where to take this next
The dataset points to a mature control-claim core surrounded by thinner, more filing-worthy branches. The next step is testing a specific claim direction against the full family set rather than the summary here.
Check freedom-to-operate against the G05D core
With 173 of 217 records classified under G05D, any new trajectory-tracking or motion-control claim needs to be checked against this dense cluster before drafting, not after.
Run a freedom-to-operate check in EurekaScope a claim in an under-claimed branch
Material-handling integration branches (B65G, B25J, B66F) show low record counts and little co-assignee overlap with leading filers — a starting point for a defensible first claim.
Explore white space in EurekaTrack assignee momentum past the lag window
Recent-year filing counts near zero for several leading assignees are likely a publication-lag artifact; revisit momentum once later-year data settles.
Set up assignee alerts in EurekaFrequently asked questions
The most-cited records in this dataset are older US grants from the 1990s, led by US5525884A ('Automatically guided vehicle', cited 226 times) and US5187664A ('Proportional position-sensing system for an automatic guided vehicle', cited 170 times). These establish core guidance and position-sensing concepts that later trajectory-tracking and fleet-control filings build on. High citation counts reflect long exposure in a searched corpus rather than current commercial dominance, since older grants simply have had more time to be cited.
Filings peaked in 2019 at 32 in this dataset and sat at 21 by the 2022 midpoint, a flat-to-declining trajectory rather than an accelerating one. The most recent years will look artificially low because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so 2025-2026 counts will revise upward as later applications publish. Treat the category as mature and established rather than in a growth phase based on current numbers.
G05D (control of non-electric variables) is the dominant classification, covering 173 of 217 records, with G05B (control and regulating systems) and G01C (navigation and gyroscope sensing) as the next-largest supporting classes. Vehicle-platform classes like B62D (steering) and B60L (electric propulsion) appear alongside these, showing that control claims are frequently paired with vehicle hardware. Material-handling classes — B65G, B25J and B66F — are comparatively thin, each in single digits to low double digits.
China is the largest receiving office by a wide margin at 129 of 217 records, followed by the United States at 36 and the European Patent Office at 21. WIPO/PCT filings (9), Canada (7) and India (5) make up smaller shares. This distribution suggests that current filing activity is concentrated in Chinese domestic filings even though the most historically influential grants originate from US patents.
WO2022023797A1, filed by Siemens Industry Software Ltd. and published 2022-02-03, covers a method for emulating an AGV system by exchanging sensor data and device state between a virtual AGV in a simulation environment and the real AGV control system, then using the returned motion-control instructions to drive the virtual AGV. It targets deployment and debugging tooling rather than the AGV's physical motion control itself. Companies building digital-twin or commissioning validation tools for AGV fleets should review this claim scope directly rather than assume it only concerns simulation software in the abstract sense.
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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.