AGV Warehouse Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
Automated Guided Vehicle Patents in Warehouses
Concentrated but not locked up. The top 5 assignees hold 30.2% of all 1,949 records in scope, and the top 10 hold 38.5% — leadership exists but there is room below it. Annual filings climbed from 128 in 2017 to a peak of 198 in 2021, then declined to 141 by 2024 — a -29% move over that three-year window. 2025 and 2026 counts are shown for completeness but will keep rising as publication catches up with filing, so they should not be read as a real slowdown yet.
- 1IROBOT CORP22.1%
- 2JABIL INC2.3%
- 3YINWANG INTELLIGENT TECHNOLOGIES CO LTD2.0%
- 4CROWN EQUIP CORP1.9%
- 5PAPST LICENSING GMBH & CO KG1.8%
See the full automated guided vehicles in warehouses analysis in Eureka
- The complete ranking, not just the top five
- Every IPC branch with its share of the corpus
- The most-cited records, and where claim space is still thin
Common questions about this landscape
How many patents exist for automated guided vehicles in warehouses?
This dataset identifies 1,949 published patent records filed between 2015 and mid-2026 that combine AGV, autonomous mobile robot or automated pallet truck terminology with a specific warehouse-relevant capability such as navigation, fleet control or obstacle avoidance. The true figure for the broader field is larger, since this search string deliberately narrows to operational capability terms rather than every mobile robotics filing. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent one to two years will keep growing as more applications publish.
Who are the leading patent filers in AGV and warehouse robotics?
Filing is concentrated at the top: the five most active assignees together account for 30.2% of all 1,949 records, and the top ten account for 38.5%. One assignee leads clearly, with 431 records compared with 28 at tenth place, indicating a long-standing and deliberate filing program rather than a crowded, evenly matched field. Below the top ten, activity spreads across a long tail of companies with far fewer filings each.
Is AGV patent filing activity growing or slowing down?
Annual filings grew from 128 in 2017 to a peak of 198 in 2021, then eased to 141 by 2024 — a -29% change over that three-year window, which is the last period with complete data. Filing counts for 2025 and 2026 appear lower still, but that reflects publication lag rather than an actual drop in activity, since patent applications typically publish around 18 months after filing. Treat the 2021-2024 comparison as the reliable read on momentum, not the more recent partial years.
Disclaimer. This analysis is based on Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent records and is provided for general information and reference only. Patent data carries inherent limitations — recent filings are under-counted because of publication lag, counts may be on a record or family basis, classification and applicant-name data may contain errors or duplicates, and the underlying search query defines the scope shown — so the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing here is an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Verify independently and review with qualified patent and legal professionals before acting on it.
Method: Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Automated Guided Vehicles in Warehouses covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish. Every share divides by all records in scope. Data: Patsnap Eureka. See the full landscape report.