AUV Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Filing peaked in 2024 at 14 families after a flat stretch through the early 2020s, so the field is active but not accelerating in a straight line.
- Naval vessel claims dominate the IPC mix B63G accounts for 46 of 52 records, with electric propulsion (B60L) and launching/salvaging (B63C) as the next densest layers.
- The United States and China lead receiving offices at 19 and 12 filings respectively, with Europe, India, WIPO and Australia trailing well behind.
What this dataset covers
This landscape draws on 52 patent families published between 2015 and mid-2026 that combine autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) or unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) terminology with platform-level design claims — hull modularity, glider architecture, propulsion and control subsystems — classified under B63G, B63C and adjacent IPC codes. It is a narrow, design-focused slice of the broader AUV patent universe, not a count of every AUV-related filing.
Because the search string requires both terminology and design-claim language together, the dataset skews toward platform and propulsion patents rather than sensor payloads or mission software. Readers using this to scope freedom-to-operate work should treat it as a starting map of hull and propulsion claim density, not a complete picture of AUV IP.
Filing trend and technology composition
Publication counts for the most recent one to two years are understated because filing-to-publication lag runs roughly 18 months; treat the tail of any trend chart as a floor, not a ceiling.
A peak in 2024, not a steady climb
Filings opened at 10 in 2017, dropped to a single family at the 2022 midpoint, then rebounded to a peak of 14 in 2024 before the expected data-cutoff dip in 2026. That shape reads as episodic investment cycles rather than continuous growth — consistent with AUV platform work following program funding rather than a steadily expanding commercial market.
Naval-vessel claims dominate; electric drive is the clearest secondary cluster
B63G (naval vessels and offensive equipment) covers 46 of the 52 records, meaning nearly every filing in this set touches hull or vessel-level claims. Electric propulsion (B60L) and launching/salvaging mechanisms (B63C) each appear in 14 records, with motor and motor-control subclasses (H02K, H02P) at 9 apiece — pointing to propulsion and deployment mechanics as the densest secondary claim space after the hull itself.
Shares are the percentage of the 52 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Underwater Vehicle with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about autonomous underwater vehicle underwater vehicle and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe records other filings build on
Autonomous underwater vehicle for aiding a scuba diver
A system pairing an AUV with diver-worn equipment: the AUV carries an acoustic transceiver, sensors, propulsion and cameras, while the diver's equipment carries its own sensors and a transceiver that relays sensed information back to the AUV. The claims center on the two-way acoustic communication loop and the AUV's ability to determine dive and diver information from that exchange plus onboard sensor data.Filed by Blue Ring Imaging, LLC, published 2017-09-07.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5995882A | Modular autonomous underwater vehicle system | 219 |
| 2 | US20100153050A1 | Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Borne Gravity Meter | 74 |
| 3 | US20170253313A1 | Autonomous underwater vehicle for aiding a scuba diver | 32 |
| 4 | US20160097875A1 | Compensation of Magnetic Data for Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Mapping Surveys | 25 |
| 5 | CN107902059A | 一种中型模块化AUV | 18 |
| 6 | CN109941410A | 一种模块化AUV | 15 |
| 7 | US10414477B2 | Pulsed power hybrid electric unmanned underwater vehicle propulsion system | 12 |
| 8 | US10202178B2 | Unmanned underwater vehicle propulsion system including an AC power distribution bus | 12 |
| 9 | US10227117B2 | Autonomous underwater vehicle for aiding a scuba diver | 7 |
| 10 | CN105711786A | 一种微型模块化AUV尾部布置结构 | 6 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations — read them as a signal of influence on the field, not as a ranking 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.
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Three things stand out once the raw counts are read against filing dates and IPC spread.
Growth is cyclical, not compounding
The trend line runs from 10 filings in 2017 down to a single family at the 2022 midpoint before rebounding to a 2024 peak. That pattern is more consistent with program-driven investment — defense contracts, research grants, survey-vessel procurement cycles — than with a market scaling on its own momentum.
Hull and vessel-level claims are the default, not the exception
Almost every record in this set touches B63G naval-vessel classification, which means new entrants drafting hull or vessel-integration claims are filing into already-dense space. Differentiation is more likely to survive examination in the secondary clusters — propulsion control, launch/recovery mechanisms — where density drops to roughly a third of the B63G count.
Filing strategy is US- and China-centric
The United States and China together account for 31 of the recorded filings, with Europe, India, WIPO and Australia each in single digits. A company benchmarking freedom-to-operate risk should weight US and Chinese prior art heaviest, then treat EPO, India, PCT and Australian filings as supplementary checks rather than primary risk pools.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to autonomous underwater vehicle underwater vehicle, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the activity has cooled
Recent-year momentum across the named assignees in this dataset shows zero filings in the latest year for every organisation tracked — including established names and university labs alike — which is consistent with the broader flat-to-declining trend after 2024's peak rather than any single company's retreat.
No assignee shows active filing in the most recent year
Every organisation in the recent-momentum data — from established aerospace and defense names to university research groups — shows zero filings in the latest recorded year. Combined with 2026 being a partial data year, this likely reflects publication lag as much as any real pullback in R&D activity.
A broad but shallow assignee base
With 52 total families across the tracked period, this is a dataset of specialist activity rather than a crowded commercial field. That combination — narrow total volume, mixed defense and academic assignees, no single dominant filer visible in the momentum data — suggests the space still has room for a well-drafted platform patent to stand out.
Defense contractors sit alongside university labs
The recent-momentum list mixes commercial and defense-adjacent entities with university research institutes, indicating this remains a field where academic and applied research feed the same claim space rather than being cleanly separated.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| EELUME AS | 0 | — |
| Hamilton Sundstrand Corporation | 0 | — |
| ARGEO ROBOTICS AS | 0 | — |
| OCEAN FLOOR GEOPHYSICS | 0 | — |
| EASTERLING JACOB | 0 | — |
| Hebei University of Technology | 0 | — |
| First Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration | 0 | — |
| Harbin Engineering University | 0 | — |
Where to take this
This landscape maps claim density and filing rhythm; turning that into a filing or freedom-to-operate decision takes a closer read of specific claim sets.
Check freedom-to-operate on hull and propulsion claims
With B63G, B60L and B63C carrying the densest claim coverage in this set, any new hull-integration or propulsion filing should be checked against those clusters specifically, not against the dataset as a whole.
Explore claim breakdowns in EurekaMap the under-claimed branches before drafting
Modular payload interchange, glider buoyancy actuation and diver-AUV communication protocols show lower filing density than hull-level claims — worth scoping before committing drafting resources elsewhere.
Run a white-space search in EurekaCommon questions about AUV patents
This dataset identifies 52 patent families published between 2015 and mid-2026 that combine AUV/UUV terminology with platform-design claim language under naval-vessel and launching-mechanism IPC codes. That is a narrow, design-focused slice — broader searches covering sensor payloads, mission software or battery chemistry alone would return a different and typically larger count. Anyone scoping a full landscape should treat this figure as a floor for platform-and-propulsion claims specifically, not a total for AUV IP overall.
The assignee base in this dataset mixes defense contractors, marine robotics companies and university research institutes, without a single filer showing dominant recent-year volume — every tracked assignee recorded zero filings in the latest year. That pattern suggests a specialist field rather than one led by a handful of large commercial players, though a full assignee ranking table (rendered separately from this text) shows the relative concentration at the top of the list.
The most-cited record in this dataset is US5995882A, 'Modular autonomous underwater vehicle system,' with 219 citations, well ahead of the next most-cited record. High citation counts inside a searched corpus tend to favour older filings that have simply had more time to accumulate citations, so read this as a marker of foundational influence on later modular-AUV design claims rather than a statement about current commercial relevance.
In this dataset, the United States leads with 19 filings, followed by China with 12, then Europe (EPO), India, WIPO/PCT and Australia in single digits. That split suggests US and Chinese prior art carries the most freedom-to-operate weight for platform and propulsion claims, while EPO and PCT filings indicate some applicants are pursuing multi-jurisdiction protection rather than filing in a single home market.
The IPC composition shows naval-vessel claims (B63G) covering 46 of 52 records, while electric propulsion, launch-and-recovery mechanisms and motor-control subclasses each sit at roughly a third of that density. Sub-areas like modular payload-bay interchange, glider buoyancy actuation and diver-AUV acoustic communication protocols show up in the dataset but at meaningfully lower claim density, making them worth a targeted freedom-to-operate check before assuming the space is occupied.
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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.