Cobot Compliant Actuation Patent Snapshot 2026
The cobot compliant actuation patent space is highly concentrated, with a small group of filers — led by Precise Automation Inc — accounting for the entirety of ranked activity. Filing volume peaked in the 2017–2018 window, went quiet for several years, and has shown only sporadic activity since 2023, making this an early-stage, low-density field with visible room for new entrants.
Precise Automation Inc leads a highly concentrated, small-corpus field
The cobot compliant actuation corpus is narrow and heavily concentrated. Precise Automation Inc holds the top-ranked position, and the top five filers together account for the entire share of the ranked applicants visible in this query — an unusually extreme concentration that reflects the early-stage nature of this niche.
The tier gap between the leader and the rest is pronounced: Precise China trailing further. This leaves the field structurally dominated by a single incumbent.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Precise Automation Inc | 8 | |
| 2 | Brooks Automation US LLC | 5 | |
| 3 | Shenzhen Yuejiang Technology Co., Ltd. | 2 | |
| 4 | North University of China | 1 |
Precise Automation’s commanding position implies that its portfolio likely defines many of the foundational claim boundaries in compliant actuation for cobots, and any new entrant must either design around those claims or identify adjacent technical territory not yet staked out.
Filing counts for the most recent 18–24 months are subject to publication lag and will increase as applications are published; the current totals for 2024–2026 should be treated as minimums. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Filing activity peaked in 2017–2018 and technology focus remains in robotic manipulators
Two charts together reveal when and where inventive effort has been directed: the annual trend shows a burst of early activity followed by a multi-year gap, while the technology composition chart shows that manipulator-class robotics claims are visible in the corpus.
Annual filing trend
Filing activity was concentrated in 2017 and 2018, then went completely dark from 2019 through 2022. A minor revival appeared in 2023, and isolated filings appear in 2025. Given publication lag, counts for 2024–2026 remain undercounted and will rise as applications publish; no conclusion about a sustained revival or continued decline can be drawn from the most recent data points.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
B25J (manipulators and robots) is the overwhelmingly visible IPC class, appearing across all patent records in the corpus. G05B (control and regulating systems) is a secondary presence, reflecting the importance of compliance-control logic. H02K (electric motors and generators) has a minimal footprint, suggesting actuator hardware at the motor level is either handled elsewhere or remains under-patented in this specific context.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaHighly cited patent families surfaced by the query
Citation-heavy patent families returned by the query. Use this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents.
KOLLABORATIVER ROBOTERARM UND GELENKMODUL
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Collaborative robot | 32 |
| 2 | Collaborative robot | 27 |
| 3 | Collaborative robot | 26 |
| 4 | Collaborative robot | 5 |
| 5 | Collaborative robot | 3 |
| 6 | 一种基于多传感器融合的协作机器人关节自适应控制系统及方法 | 2 |
| 7 | Collaborative robot | 1 |
| 8 | Collaborative robot | 1 |
Ranked by total forward citations. Citation counts favour older and broadly cited patent families, and broad or adjacent patents may appear when they match the search scope. Treat this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents. Some patent titles may be shown in their original, non-English language where an accurate translation could not be guaranteed.
Assignee snapshot from the current evidence set
The applicants below are visible in this query result. Because the evidence set is relatively small, read this section as a directional snapshot rather than a full competitive ranking.
Precise Automation Inc
Precise Automation Inc holds the top position with 8 patent records, the largest share in this corpus. Its technology emphasis spans B25J 9 (manipulator structures), B25J 13 (manipulator control), and G05B 19 (programmable control systems), indicating an integrated approach covering both the mechanical and control-software dimensions of compliant actuation. No momentum trend data was available, consistent with the filing gap observed in the annual trend.
8 patent recordsShenzhen Yuejiang Technology Co., Ltd.
Shenzhen Yuejiang Technology Co., Ltd. (listed as Shenzhen Yuejiang Tech Co Ltd in the ranking) holds 2 patent records and is flagged as a new entrant in terms of applicant momentum, meaning its recent filings represent its first appearance in this specific corpus. Its technical focus covers B25J 13 (manipulator control), B25J 17 (manipulator joints), and B25J 9 (manipulator structures), suggesting interest in joint-level compliance — a sub-area that is lightly covered by the existing corpus.
2 patent recordsFrequently asked questions
The current corpus contains 11 patent families in scope. This is a small corpus, reflecting either the nascent state of the field, a narrow search definition, or both. It does not represent all robotics or cobot patents broadly.
Precise Automation Inc is the top-ranked filer with 8 patent records, followed by Brooks Automation US LLC with 5. These two US-based companies together represent the bulk of the corpus.
The United States leads with 5 patent records, followed by Europe (EPO) with 3. Canada, China, and WIPO (PCT) each have 1 patent record. Coverage outside the US and EPO is thin.
Filing activity peaked in 2017 and 2018, then went dormant from 2019 through 2022, with only isolated activity in 2023 and 2025. The lifecycle stage cannot be formally classified from the available evidence. The most recent period (2024–2026) remains undercounted due to publication lag.
Shenzhen Yuejiang Technology Co., Ltd. is identified as a new entrant in the applicant momentum data, with 2 recent patent records and no prior presence in this specific corpus. North University of China also appears with 1 patent record.
H02K (electric motors and generators) appears in only 2 patent records, suggesting that motor-hardware-level approaches to compliance are sparsely covered. B25J 17 (manipulator joints) is also a minority sub-branch, despite joint-level compliance being technically relevant to cobots.
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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.
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