AMR Safety & Compliance Patents: Who Leads, Filing Trends 2026
- Filing activity peaked in 2019 at 24 records and has since fallen back, with the midpoint year (2022) at just 1 filing — this is a claim space that opened fast and then went quiet.
- G05D (control of non-electric variables) and B25J (manipulators) dominate, together spanning 60 and 45 records respectively out of 72 total families, while traffic-control and hybrid-vehicle IPCs sit at single digits.
- The United States receives the largest share of filings (41), more than triple the EPO count (11), making US freedom-to-operate the first checkpoint for most entrants.
Filing growth compares 2021 (7 records) with 2024 (4) — 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 72 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks patent families at the intersection of autonomous mobile robots (AMR) and autonomous ground vehicles with safety and compliance mechanisms — functional safety, collision avoidance, safety-rated sensing, and the ISO 3691 mobile-robot safety standard. The scope is drawn from title/abstract language combined with IPC classifications for control systems, manipulators, and safety guarding (G05D1/02, B25J9/16, F16P3), so it captures the safety layer rather than general AMR navigation or fleet-management filings.
Coverage runs from 2015 through the 2026 data cut-off. As with any recent window, publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the last one to two years understate actual filing activity and should be read as a floor, not a ceiling.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 72 families: how filing volume moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
A sharp rise, then a stall
Filings climbed from 5 in 2017 to a peak of 24 in 2019, then fell away — the midpoint year, 2022, recorded just 1 filing. That shape points to an early land-grab around safety-rated sensing and collision avoidance, followed by consolidation rather than continued expansion. The most recent year (2026, partial) shows 1 filing, which is expected given publication lag rather than a genuine drop to zero.
Control and manipulation carry the claim density
G05D (control of non-electric variables) appears in 60 of 72 records and B25J (manipulators & robots) in 45, confirming that most safety claims are written as control-loop or actuator-level mechanisms rather than as standalone sensor hardware. Perception-adjacent classes — G06T and G06V, each at 10 — and traffic/vehicle classes — G08G at 5, B60L and B60W at 4 each — are present but thin, which is where the composition points to open ground rather than occupied ground.
Shares are the percentage of the 72 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Autonomous Mobile Robot Safety and Compliance with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about autonomous mobile robot safety and compliance and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative filing and most-cited prior art
US20200125109A1 — Autonomous ground vehicle (AGV) cart for item distribution
A disclosed system for transporting items to destination locations, for example when receiving inventory at large retail locations, includes an autonomous ground vehicle (AGV) having at least one shelf; a shelf elevator operable to raise and lower the at least one shelf; a drive unit operable to move the AGV between a docking location and a destination location; the AGV able to position the at least one shelf at different heights for loading and offloading items, autonomously navigate between the docking location and the first destination location, and bid on delivery tasks.Filed by Walmart Apollo, LLC — published 2020-04-23.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5324948A | Autonomous mobile robot for radiologic surveys | 333 |
| 2 | US7066291B2 | Robot system | 329 |
| 3 | US20190161274A1 | Collision prevention for autonomous vehicles | 81 |
| 4 | US20190160675A1 | Dynamic navigation of autonomous vehicle with safety infrastructure | 69 |
| 5 | US20180259971A1 | Autonomous mobile robot, and method and program for controlling the same | 27 |
| 6 | US20210001480A1 | Autonomous Mobile Robot And Method For Controlling An Autonomous Mobile Robot | 26 |
| 7 | US11498587B1 | Autonomous machine motion planning in a dynamic environment | 22 |
| 8 | US20210026368A1 | Apparatus, system, and method of using depth assessment for autonomous robot navigation | 21 |
| 9 | US20220063085A1 | Autonomous mobile robot system for improved docking with a wheeled cart | 20 |
| 10 | US20190243358A1 | Manual control modes for an autonomous mobile robot | 20 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus skew toward older filings simply because they have had more time to accumulate citations; treat this table as a map of influence on later work, not a ranking of current relevance.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three read-throughs from the trend, the IPC split and the citation table.
The safety layer was staked out early
A jump from 5 filings in 2017 to 24 in 2019, followed by a collapse to 1 by 2022, is consistent with an initial wave of foundational safety-mechanism claims followed by a pause rather than sustained growth. New entrants should expect the core control-loop and collision-avoidance claim space around that 2018–2019 window to be dense.
Control logic, not sensor hardware, is where claims sit
With G05D present in 60 of 72 records and B25J in 45, most safety claims are written at the control-system or manipulator level — how a robot decides to stop or reroute — rather than around specific sensor hardware. That leaves the physical safety-rated sensing hardware itself comparatively open.
US filing is the first gate, Europe a distant second
United States receiving-office filings (41) outnumber EPO filings (11) nearly four to one, with India (8) ahead of WIPO PCT (5). A freedom-to-operate check anchored in the US will clear most of the relevant art; European coverage is comparatively thin.
The most-cited prior art predates the current wave
The two most-cited records in this corpus were filed well before the 2019 filing peak, meaning citation counts here reflect decades of accumulated reference rather than present-day relevance. Recent filings, including 2019-era collision-prevention applications, carry meaningfully fewer citations simply because they have had less time to be cited.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to autonomous mobile robot safety and compliance, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
Assignee activity in this corpus has gone quiet across the board in the latest tracked year — a signal to check publication lag before reading too much into it.
No assignee shows recent-year growth
Every assignee tracked for recent-year momentum — including major names in logistics and industrial robotics — shows 0 filings in the latest tracked year, with one recording a full -100% YoY drop. This is more consistent with publication lag at the 2026 cut-off than with a genuine industry-wide halt.
Co-assignment is limited but pointed
Only 6 co-assignee pairs appear in this corpus, and the strongest three each share 4 filings with the same individual, Rand Alex. That concentration suggests a small number of named inventors driving joint filings rather than broad cross-company collaboration.
Retail logistics is a visible filer, not just industrial robotics makers
The representative record in this corpus — an AGV cart for item distribution — was filed by Walmart Apollo, a retail logistics operator rather than a traditional robotics manufacturer. That points to safety and compliance claims increasingly being filed by end-use operators, not only equipment makers.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Jabil Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Amazon Technologies, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Locus Robotics Corp. | 0 | — |
| Siemens AG | 0 | — |
| RAND ALEX | 0 | — |
| GRAF LANA | 0 | — |
| GILBANE JR THOMAS FREEMAN | 0 | — |
| CUSHMAN ERIC J | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next checks rather than a single conclusion.
Check the 2018–2020 filing window closely
The bulk of dense claim activity sits in this three-year window; a detailed claim chart against records filed there will surface the actual boundaries of the control-loop and collision-avoidance space before you draft around it.
Explore filings in EurekaTrack publication lag before reading the 2024–2026 drop as real
Filings from the last 18 months are systematically undercounted at any cut-off date; re-run this query in six to twelve months to see whether the apparent decline holds.
Set up a watch in EurekaMap the sensor-hardware layer separately
Because most claims here sit at the control-system level, a companion search scoped to safety-rated sensing hardware (rather than control logic) will likely surface a distinct, less crowded set of assignees.
Run a scoped search in EurekaCommon questions on AMR safety and compliance patents
This dataset tracks 72 patent families filed between 2015 and the 2026 data cut-off that combine autonomous mobile robot or autonomous ground vehicle terminology with functional-safety, collision-avoidance or safety-rated sensing language. Filing activity peaked at 24 in 2019 before falling sharply, with only 1 filing recorded at the 2022 midpoint. The true count for the most recent one to two years is likely higher than shown, since publication typically lags filing by around 18 months.
Activity in this corpus includes both established robotics and industrial names and retail-logistics operators; the representative record here was filed by Walmart Apollo, LLC for an autonomous ground vehicle cart, which illustrates how end-use operators are filing safety and compliance claims alongside equipment manufacturers. Every top assignee tracked shows zero filings in the latest tracked year, which most likely reflects publication lag rather than an actual halt in R&D. A ranked assignee table accompanies this landscape with the full order by family count.
G05D (control of non-electric variables) and B25J (manipulators and robots) dominate this corpus, appearing in 60 and 45 of the 72 tracked records respectively, which shows that most safety claims are written at the control-logic or actuator level. Supporting classes include B65G (conveying and material handling), G06T and G06V (image processing and recognition), each at 10 records, and thinner coverage in G08G (traffic control) and B60L/B60W (vehicle propulsion and control) at 4-5 records each. The thin classes are worth checking for open claim space before assuming the field is fully occupied.
The IPC composition shows heavy claim density in control-loop and manipulator-level safety logic (G05D, B25J) but comparatively light coverage in perception-hardware classes (G06T, G06V at 10 each) and vehicle-integration classes (G08G, B60L, B60W, each under 5). That imbalance suggests safety-rated sensor fusion, dynamic exclusion-zone logic, and multi-robot coordination for collision avoidance are less claimed than the core stop/reroute control mechanisms. A freedom-to-operate search focused on those thinner branches is a reasonable next step before drafting new claims there.
Filings rose from 5 in 2017 to a peak of 24 in 2019, then fell to just 1 by the 2022 midpoint and remain low through the 2026 cut-off. Part of this decline is a real consolidation — once foundational collision-avoidance and functional-safety mechanisms are claimed, incremental filing slows. Part of it is also an artefact of publication lag, which understates filings in the most recent one to two years, so the 2024-2026 figures should not yet be read as a confirmed downward trend.
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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.