Cobot In-Line Inspection Patent Snapshot 2026
Cobot in-line inspection is an early-growth field with 23 patent families in scope and a fragmented applicant base where no single entity commands a dominant share. Chengdu Qinchuan IoT Technology leads by filing count, and activity is concentrated in the United States and India, with manipulator and robot control as the overwhelmingly dominant technical branch.
Fragmented field with one clear filing leader
Chengdu Qinchuan IoT Technology holds the top position with 4 patent records, ahead of Kidde Fire Protection with 2. The remainder of the ranked applicants each hold a single record, signalling that no incumbent has yet built a defensible portfolio.
The top five filers together account for 32% of the ranked applicants visible in this query’ combined total, a low concentration ratio that reflects the field’s nascent state. The gap between the leader and the second tier is narrow, meaning the competitive hierarchy could shift rapidly with a few additional filings.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chengdu Qinchuan IoT Technology Co., Ltd. | 4 | |
| 2 | Kidde Fire Protection LLC | 2 | |
| 3 | Qingdao Zhineng Zhizao Data Technology Co., Ltd. | 1 | |
| 4 | GTia Co., Ltd. | 1 | |
| 5 | R ADITIYA | 1 | |
| 6 | NOIDA INST OF ENG & TECH | 1 | |
| 7 | Arya College of Engineering | 1 | |
| 8 | Kyungpook National University Industrial Academic Cooperation Foundation | 1 | |
| 9 | Bennett University | 1 | |
| 10 | JIS College of Engineering | 1 |
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Techolution Consulting LLC | 1 | |
| 12 | Changsha Maijing Technology Co., Ltd. | 1 | |
| 13 | R PAVITHRA | 1 | |
| 14 | Wizcore Co., Ltd. | 1 | |
| 15 | Carrier Corporation | 1 | |
| 16 | P VARSHINI | 1 | |
| 17 | M J KAVVYASRI | 1 | |
| 18 | St. Martin’s Engineering College | 1 | |
| 19 | ELECTRONICS & TELECOMM RES INST | 1 | |
| 20 | DR M KAARTHIK | 1 |
The leader’s position rests on manipulator and robot control (B25J 9), but given the small absolute counts, that position is not yet entrenched. New entrants — including academic institutions in India and South Korea — are actively seeding the literature.
The most recent filing years are under-counted due to standard patent publication lag; observed totals for 2024 and 2025 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 accelerating since 2023; robot control dominates the technology mix
Annual filings were negligible before 2020 and sporadic through 2022, but climbed to 5 records in 2023 and 7 in 2024, consistent with a field entering the growth phase. The technology composition is heavily skewed toward manipulator and robot patents, with a long tail of adjacent branches.
Annual filing trend
Activity was effectively zero from 2017 through 2019, picked up in 2020, dipped in 2022, then accelerated through 2023 and 2024. The 2025 figure and any 2026 activity are understated by publication lag and should not be read as a plateau.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
B25J (manipulators and robots) accounts for the largest share of records by a wide margin, establishing cobot hardware as the primary focus. G06Q (business and administrative data processing), G01N (material analysis and testing), G05B (control systems), and G06N (AI models) form a secondary cluster, reflecting early integration of analytics and machine-learning layers into inspection workflows.
↗ 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.
System and method for supporting work through coll…
A method of supporting work through collaboration with a collaborative robot includes a posture estimation unit that estimates posture and body information of a worker based on an image of the worker captured through a posture recognition camera module provided on one side of the worker and that estimates the state of the worker based on the estimated… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | System and method for early event detection using … | 7 |
| 2 | Industrial internet of things for monitoring colla… | 5 |
| 3 | 一种基于AI机器视觉的产品外观质量检测机器人 | 2 |
| 4 | Collaborative robot linked vision recognition system | 2 |
| 5 | System and method for early event detection using … | 2 |
| 6 | System and method for early event detection using … | 2 |
| 7 | 一种全自动血常规流水线处理系统 | 1 |
| 8 | 一种汽车转向总成外观检测装置 | 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.
Chengdu Qinchuan IoT Technology
Chengdu Qinchuan IoT Technology holds 4 patent records, the largest single-applicant count in scope, concentrated in B25J 9 (manipulators and robots). Its momentum trend is flagged as a new entrant, meaning its portfolio was built recently from a zero base — a pattern consistent with a deliberate and targeted entry rather than an incremental build.
patent records: 4Kidde Fire Protection LLC
Kidde Fire Protection holds 2 patent records and sits immediately behind the leader. Its presence in a cobot inspection corpus is notable given its fire-protection domain heritage, suggesting application of cobot inspection methods to safety-critical infrastructure monitoring. Its technology emphasis maps to B25J 9, aligning with the field’s visible branch.
patent records: 2Frequently asked questions
The current evidence covers 23 patent families in scope globally. This is a small corpus consistent with an early-growth field where systematic IP accumulation by commercial players is still beginning.
Chengdu Qinchuan IoT Technology holds the most patent records with 4, followed by Kidde Fire Protection with 2. All remaining ranked applicants hold a single record each.
The United States leads with 9 patent records, followed by India with 6 and South Korea with 4. China accounts for 3 records, and there is 1 WIPO PCT filing.
B25J (manipulators and robots) is by far the most represented IPC class with 19 patent records, establishing cobot hardware and control as the primary technical focus. G06Q, G01N, G05B, and G06N form a smaller secondary cluster.
Evidence places the field in the Growth lifecycle stage, with annual filings still rising and no indication of easing from a peak. The 2024 filing year recorded the highest annual count observed. Recent years are under-counted due to publication lag, so current figures are minimums.
G01N (material analysis and testing), G06N (AI models), G05B (control systems), G06T (image data processing), and H04W (wireless communication networks) all have low record counts relative to the visible B25J branch. G01N and G06N are particularly worth investigating given their technical centrality to inspection workflows.
Built on Patsnap Open Platform
This report’s underlying patent dataset — filings, assignees, technology clusters — is open for developers via MCP and REST API. Free to start, 10,000 credits, no credit card required.
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.