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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/autonomous-underwater-vehicle-offshore-platform-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Marine & Offshore · Patent LandscapeAutonomous Underwater Vehicle Offshore Platform Patents
- Filing activity peaked in 2019 at 8 records and has since gone flat, with the 2022 midpoint at zero — this is a narrow, already-quiet filing corpus rather than a growth market.
- B63G (naval vessels) carries 21 of 24 records while control systems (G05D) and navigation (G01C, G01S) each sit in single digits — the hull and vehicle platform is heavily claimed, the sensing and autonomy stack much less so.
- No assignee shows activity in the latest year including Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Shell entities and Halliburton — momentum has stalled across every named player, not just the smaller filers.
24
Published Records
79%
Top-5 Share of All Records
US
Leading Jurisdiction
21
Active Filers Ranked
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Overview
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks patent families combining autonomous underwater vehicle or unmanned underwater vehicle terminology with offshore-platform-specific applications: subsea structure inspection, offshore platform inspection, resident AUV concepts and pipeline inspection, filtered to IPC classes covering naval vessels, motion control and pipe fittings. It spans 2015 through the 2026-07-31 cutoff, with 24 published records forming 24 distinct patent families.
Publication typically lags filing by around eighteen months, so any apparent falloff in the most recent one or two years understates real filing activity and should not be read as a definitive trend break on its own.
Filing activity, 2015–2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Offshore Platform covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Data
Filing trend and technology composition
The filing curve and the IPC breakdown together show a field that had one active period rather than sustained growth, concentrated in vehicle and launch/recovery hardware.
A single filing peak, not a growth curve
Filings were at zero in 2017, rose to a peak of 8 in 2019, and by the 2022 midpoint had returned to zero. That pattern — a spike followed by a flat or declining tail through the 2026 cutoff — points to a technology area that saw a short burst of interest rather than one building steadily toward the present.
Hull and launch systems dominate the classification mix
B63G (naval and offensive vessels) accounts for 21 of the 24 records, with B63C (launching and salvaging vessels) at 9 and B63B (ships and marine vessels) at 6 — heavy overlap is expected since many families sit in more than one subclass. Control (G05D, 5), sonar/positioning (G01S, 3), pipe fittings (F16L, 3), navigation (G01C, 2) and material testing (G01N, 1) are all thin by comparison, meaning the vehicle and deployment hardware is far more densely claimed than the sensing, navigation or autonomy software layers.
Shares are the percentage of the 24 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Offshore Platform covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
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The most-cited records anchor the inspection concept
Representative patent
Underwater Inspection System Using an AUV in Combination with a Laser Micro Bathymetry Unit and High Definition Camera
C&C TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
A system for inspecting underwater objects includes an untethered, autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) carrying a laser micro bathymetry system — a triangulation laser system — together with a high resolution digital camera, both mounted on the AUV for close-range structural inspection.Filed by C&C Technologies, Inc., published 2017-03-16, and the most-cited record in this corpus at 22 citations.
Highest-cited families in this corpus
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20170074664A1 | Underwater Inspection System Using An Autonomous Underwater Vehicle ("AUV") In Combination With A Laser Micro… | 22 |
| 2 | US20170268714A1 | Pig tracking by unmanned submarine | 15 |
| 3 | US20150046014A1 | Underwater working system and method for operating an underwater working system | 14 |
| 4 | US9669912B2 | Underwater working system and method for operating an underwater working system | 8 |
| 5 | CN115848606A | 一种深海长期驻留式AUV探测系统及方法 | 7 |
| 6 | US9746444B2 | Autonomous pipeline inspection using magnetic tomography | 7 |
| 7 | US20210362816A1 | Working method using autonomous underwater vehicle | 4 |
| 8 | GB2581091A | Guide cable based apparatus and method for unmanned vehicle recovering autonomous underwater vehicle | 3 |
| 9 | US20210155330A1 | Autonomous underwater vehicle | 3 |
| 10 | US10378689B2 | Pig tracking by unmanned submarine | 2 |
Citation counts reflect influence within this searched corpus and are structurally biased toward older filings; they are not a measure of current commercial relevance.
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.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Citation counts and representative records. Derived from a Patsnap search on Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Offshore Platform covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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What the numbers mean for filing strategy
Three patterns stand out once family counts, IPC composition and momentum are read together.
Filing pattern
Peak 2019: 8 filings
vs. 0 at 2022 midpoint
A closed filing wave, not an open trend
The corpus rose to 8 filings in 2019 and fell back to zero by 2022. Anyone benchmarking against this space should treat it as a completed filing cycle around resident-AUV and inspection concepts rather than a market still accelerating.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Classification skew
21 of 24 in B63G
naval vessel subclass
Vehicle hardware is claimed far more than autonomy software
With G05D (control), G01S (sonar/positioning) and G01C (navigation) each in single digits, the claim density sits overwhelmingly in the vehicle and launch/recovery hardware rather than in perception, autonomy or navigation algorithms.
IPC composition
Assignee momentum
0 latest-year filings
across all tracked assignees
No active filer in the most recent year
Named assignees including Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Halliburton, Shell-linked entities and Hohai University all show zero filings in the latest year, consistent with the broader flat-to-declining trend rather than any one company retreating.
Recent-year momentum
Geographic filing
US 10, UK 4
leading receiving offices
Filing is concentrated in the US and UK
The United States and United Kingdom together account for the majority of receiving-office activity, with India, WIPO/PCT, Austria and Canada each contributing a small number — offshore-heavy jurisdictions with North Sea and Gulf of Mexico activity are where prior art concentrates.
Receiving offices
Eureka AI Agent
Looking for what nobody has claimed yet?
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to autonomous underwater vehicle offshore platform, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Offshore Platform covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Players
Who holds this ground, and where the gaps sit
Ten co-assignee pairs and a mix of energy majors, industrial conglomerates and one Chinese university make up the named-assignee set, but none show recent-year activity — this is a field to watch for reactivation, not one with an active leader to chase today.
Energy majors
Multiple Shell co-filings
co-assignee pairs
Shell entities anchor the strongest co-filing pairs
The strongest co-assignee links in this corpus involve Shell International Research and Shell Oil Company jointly, plus individual named inventors filing alongside Shell entities — consistent with inspection technology developed for the company's own subsea assets rather than sold externally.
Co-assignee pairs, n=10
Industrial OEMs
0 latest-year filings
Kawasaki Heavy Industries
Heavy industry filers have gone quiet
Kawasaki Heavy Industries appears among the named assignees but shows no filings in the latest tracked year, matching the broader pattern of a filing wave that has not been sustained by any single industrial player.
Recent-year momentum
Academic filers
1 university assignee
Hohai University
One academic entrant, no recent output
Hohai University is the sole academic-style assignee identified in this set, alongside oilfield services firm Halliburton — both show zero filings in the latest year, reinforcing that this is a dormant rather than an actively contested space.
Assignee list
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Ares Electronics | 0 | — |
| Shell International Research Maatschappij B.V. | 0 | — |
| Halliburton Energy Services, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Hohai University | 0 | — |
| Shell Oil Company | 0 | — |
| First Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration | 0 | — |
| UTHAYAKUMAR G S | 0 | -100% |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Offshore Platform covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
What's next
Where to take this analysis
The flat trend and thin autonomy-layer coverage suggest two different next steps depending on what you are trying to do.
Check freedom-to-operate against the hull and launch claims
With 21 of 24 families sitting in B63G and 9 in B63C, any new vehicle or launch/recovery mechanism should be checked against this dense cluster before committing to a hardware design.
Run a freedom-to-operate search in EurekaWatch for reactivation among dormant assignees
Every named assignee shows zero filings in the latest year. A renewed filing from Shell, Kawasaki or Halliburton would be a meaningful signal that the field is moving again.
Set up assignee monitoring in EurekaExplore the thin autonomy and sensing layers
G05D, G01S and G01C claims are sparse relative to the vehicle hardware. This is where new claim scope is most likely still available.
Explore white space in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Offshore Platform covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
The named assignees in this corpus include energy majors such as Shell entities, industrial conglomerate Kawasaki Heavy Industries, oilfield services firm Halliburton, and one academic filer, Hohai University. None of these show any filings in the latest tracked year, so there is no single dominant current filer — the field is better described as having had contributors during its 2019 peak rather than an active leader today. Anyone assessing this space should treat the assignee list as historical positioning rather than a live competitive map.
Filing activity peaked at 8 records in 2019 and had fallen back to zero by the 2022 midpoint, with the overall 2017-to-2026 trend flat to declining. This is not a growing market by the filing evidence available. Because publication lags filing by roughly eighteen months, the very latest years are always undercounted, but the multi-year flat stretch before that lag window is a genuine signal rather than a reporting artefact.
Vehicle and hull-related classifications dominate: B63G (naval vessels) covers 21 of the 24 families, and B63C (launching and salvaging vessels) covers 9, with meaningful overlap between the two. By contrast, control systems (G05D), sonar and positioning (G01S), and navigation (G01C) each appear in only a handful of records. This means the physical vehicle and deployment mechanisms are far more thoroughly claimed than the sensing, autonomy or navigation software that runs on them.
US20170074664A1, filed by C&C Technologies, Inc. and published in March 2017, describes an untethered AUV carrying a triangulation laser micro-bathymetry system together with a high-definition digital camera for underwater inspection. It is the most-cited record in this corpus at 22 citations, indicating it is widely referenced by later filings in the same space. Anyone designing a combined laser-and-camera AUV inspection payload should review this family closely, since its claims sit at the center of the most heavily cited concept in the dataset.
The thinnest classification areas relative to the vehicle-hardware core are control (G05D), sonar-based positioning (G01S) and navigation (G01C), each with only two or three records against 21 in the naval-vessel class. Specific sub-areas worth examining include resident-AUV docking and charging infrastructure, sonar-based defect classification, and autonomous navigation logic for close-range work near subsea structures. These are areas where the underlying hardware concepts are well claimed but the software and sensor-fusion layers built on top of them are not.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Offshore Platform covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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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.