Humanoid Robot Actuation Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- One architecture dominates the citation record. the rotary series elastic actuator family, led by a single lineage of filings, accounts for the five most-cited records in this dataset.
- Filing activity peaked in 2023 at five families and has not sustained growth since. the 2022 midpoint sits at zero, so momentum here is uneven rather than compounding.
- Manipulator claims (B25J) touch all 27 families, but automotive-adjacent classes (B62D) and gearing (F16H) are comparatively thin. suggesting drivetrain and vehicle-crossover integration claims are less contested than the actuator core.
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks patent families at the intersection of humanoid and legged robot bodies and the actuators that move their joints — series elastic actuators, quasi-direct drive units, and joint actuation assemblies classified under manipulator (B25J), electric motor (H02K) and gearing (F16H) codes. The scope is deliberately narrow: it excludes general-purpose robotics filings that do not specify an actuator mechanism, and it excludes actuator patents that do not reference a legged or humanoid platform in the title or claims.
Coverage runs from 2015 through the 2026 data cut-off, with 27 published families forming the base of the ranking. Because publication typically lags filing by around eighteen months, the most recent one to two years in any trend line should be read as a floor, not a ceiling.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 27-family dataset: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
A peak in 2023, no sustained climb
Filings sat at zero in 2017, rose unevenly through the following years, and reached a peak of five families in 2023. The zero reading at the 2022 midpoint indicates the growth path is flat-to-declining rather than a steady ramp, and the partial 2026 year understates whatever filing is currently in the pipeline.
B25J carries the full set; B62D and F16H trail
Every one of the 27 families touches B25J (manipulators and robots), confirming the search scope. Nine families also carry a B62D motor-vehicle/steering classification, and five each touch F16H (gearing) and H02K (electric motors) — pointing to actuator claims that increasingly cross into vehicle-style drivetrain and motor design rather than staying purely mechanical.
Shares are the percentage of the 27 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Humanoid Robot Actuation with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about humanoid robot actuation and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited actuator design in this dataset
US8443694B2 — Rotary series elastic actuator (GM Global Technology Operations)
A rotary actuator assembly is provided for actuation of an upper arm assembly for a dexterous humanoid robot. The upper arm assembly includes a plurality of arm support frames each defining an axis, with a rotary actuator assembly mounted to each about its axis. Each assembly includes a motor, a gear drive rotatably connected to the motor, and a torsion spring whose input connects to the gear drive output and whose output connects to the joint output.Filed by GM Global Technology Operations LLC, granted 2013-05-21 — one of the family of rotary series elastic actuator filings that dominates the citation table above.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20110067517A1 | Rotary series elastic actuator | 116 |
| 2 | JP2011072186A | Rotary series elastic actuator | 35 |
| 3 | US20120279338A1 | Rotary series elastic actuator | 30 |
| 4 | US8291788B2 | Rotary series elastic actuator | 19 |
| 5 | US20120279343A1 | Rotary series elastic actuator | 18 |
| 6 | US8443694B2 | Rotary series elastic actuator | 16 |
| 7 | WO2024129735A1 | Humanoid robot | 8 |
| 8 | KR1020150112599A | Humanoid robot having compact series elastic actuator | 8 |
| 9 | WO2020112229A2 | Legged robot | 6 |
| 10 | US8443693B2 | Rotary series elastic actuator | 6 |
Ranked by citation count within this corpus. Citation counts favour older filings, so treat this as a signal of influence on later design work, not of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Put your own technology through the same analysis
Eureka on the web
When you want the answer in the next five minutes.
The agent works the prompt against patents and technical literature, citing every source.
Run your analysis now →MCP server & REST API
When it has to run inside your own pipeline.
Patent search, landscape analysis and assignee resolution as MCP tools. Drop them into any agent framework, or call REST directly.
Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Four readings of the dataset that matter more for strategy than the raw counts do on their own.
The rotary series elastic actuator lineage anchors the field
The five most-cited records in this dataset all carry the same title, 'Rotary series elastic actuator', spanning US, JP and continuation filings. A single mechanical concept — motor, gear drive, torsion spring in series — has shaped nearly every later filing that touches joint actuation.
Activity is episodic, not compounding
With 2017 at zero and 2022 also at zero, the filing curve does not show a steady climb toward the 2023 peak. New entrants appear to file in bursts around specific product cycles rather than in a continuous R&D pipeline.
Vehicle and drivetrain crossover is real but secondary
Nine of 27 families also carry a B62D motor-vehicle classification, which is a notable share given the search scope is legged robots. It signals that some assignees are treating humanoid joint actuators as a spin-off of automotive steering or drivetrain engineering rather than a clean-sheet robotics design.
Filing is concentrated in the US and PCT route, with Asia-Pacific present but thinner
United States and WIPO/PCT filings together account for more than half the tracked records, with Canada, Europe and South Korea each in single digits and Japan appearing once. A first-to-file strategy outside the US and PCT corridor still faces comparatively light prior art in this exact actuator-plus-humanoid intersection.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to humanoid robot actuation, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and who files together
The assignee and co-assignee data point to a small set of named inventors filing in tight, repeated teams rather than a broad competitive field.
Apptronik Inc.
Apptronik shows zero families in the latest tracked year, a -100% year-over-year change from prior activity. Given publication lag, this reading understates whatever is currently in the filing pipeline rather than confirming a pullback.
Radford Nicolaus A.
Radford appears as a named party alongside Permenter Fr Noble, Parsons Adam H. and Mehling Joshua S., each pairing sharing six families — the strongest co-assignee links in the dataset. This is a tightly coupled inventing team rather than a set of independent filers.
GM Global Technology Operations
The representative filing behind the field's most-cited actuator concept traces to GM Global Technology Operations, filed for dexterous humanoid arm actuation. It remains the reference point that later series elastic actuator claims are drafted around or against.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| APPTRONIK INC | 0 | -100% |
| RADFORD NICOLAUS A | 0 | — |
| PERMENTER FR NOBLE | 0 | — |
| PARSONS ADAM H | 0 | — |
| MEHLING JOSHUA S | 0 | — |
| JUNKIN LUCIEN Q | 0 | — |
| IHRKE CHRIS A | 0 | — |
| GRIFFITH BRYAN KRISTIAN | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a narrow, citation-anchored core and several thinly filed adjacent branches. The next steps depend on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate or active filing.
Run a freedom-to-operate check on the SEA core
Before drafting claims on any rotary series elastic actuator design, check the full family behind the top-cited records — the citation concentration there means overlap risk is high even for redesigned mechanisms.
Explore in Patsnap EurekaInvestigate the vehicle-to-humanoid crossover claims
The B62D overlap in nine of 27 families suggests some assignees are repurposing automotive steering or drivetrain IP for humanoid joints — worth tracing to see who holds the underlying vehicle patents.
Explore in Patsnap EurekaWatch the named inventor teams for new filings
The tight co-assignee clusters suggest a small number of individuals drive most of the field's output; tracking their subsequent filings is a more direct signal than company-level monitoring alone.
Explore in Patsnap EurekaCommon questions on humanoid robot actuation patents
The core classification is B25J9/10 and B25J17, covering manipulators and robot joints generally, and every family in this dataset carries a B25J code. Electric motor design for actuators falls under H02K7, and gearing or transmission elements sit under F16H. A meaningful share of filings also carry B62D, the motor-vehicle and steering classification, reflecting actuator designs that cross over from automotive engineering into humanoid joints.
The most-cited records in this space share the title 'Rotary series elastic actuator' and trace back to a lineage that includes GM Global Technology Operations, whose 2013 filing on dexterous humanoid arm actuation remains a reference point. Separately, a tightly linked group of named inventors — Radford, Permenter, Parsons and Mehling — co-file repeatedly, with pairs sharing up to six families each, suggesting a small inventing team drives much of the recent activity rather than a broad field of independent competitors.
Based on the 2015–2026 data, filing activity is uneven rather than steadily climbing: it was at zero in 2017, still at zero at the 2022 midpoint, and peaked at five families in 2023. That pattern looks more like episodic bursts tied to specific product announcements than a compounding R&D pipeline, though the partial 2026 year understates current activity given typical publication lag.
A series elastic actuator places a spring element — commonly a torsion spring — between the motor's gear drive output and the robot joint output, so the joint gains compliance and force-sensing capability instead of behaving as a rigid drive. This matters for humanoid and legged robots because it allows safer, more compliant contact with people and terrain. The dataset's most-cited patents are built around exactly this motor-gear-spring arrangement, which is why it anchors so much of the later claim drafting in the field.
Based on this 27-family dataset, the densest claim coverage sits squarely on rotary series elastic actuator mechanics, while quasi-direct drive gear ratio optimisation, torsion spring stiffness tuning, and motor-integrated planetary gearing for compact joints appear comparatively thin. Cross-platform reuse of vehicle steering or drivetrain actuator IP for humanoid joints is also under-represented relative to the nine B62D-tagged families, suggesting room to file narrowly drawn claims there rather than in the crowded actuator core.
Research Humanoid Robot Actuation in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole humanoid robot actuation corpus yourself, in your own scope.
Every answer comes back with patent numbers you can open.
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.