Incipient Slip Detection Patents: Who Leads, Where Gaps Are 2026
- Concentrated top tier. The five leading assignees hold 52.1% of all 71 records in scope, and the ranked leaders extend to 40 companies with a long tail of single-filing entrants.
- 2020 was the filing peak. Filings reached 11 that year; 2021's 6 filings fell to 1 by 2024, an 83% drop over that span, though later years are still filling in as publications lag filing.
- Manipulators dominate the class mix. B25J covers 90.1% of the 71 records, while force-measurement (G01L, 26.8%) and vehicle steering (B62D, 12.7%) sit as smaller, more open adjacencies.
Filing growth compares 2021 (6 records) with 2024 (1) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 71 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this patent set covers
This landscape tracks 71 published records filed against IPC classes covering robotic manipulators, force and pressure measurement, and robotic joint control, matched against text mentioning incipient slip detection, friction estimation or slip detection. The scope spans grippers, end effectors and mobile robot contact sensing rather than general tribology or industrial bearing monitoring.
Filing activity runs from 2015 through the 2026 cut-off, with China, the United States and Japan as the three largest receiving offices. The dataset is small enough that individual assignees move the aggregate figures noticeably, so read concentration and trend numbers as directional signals of where grip-control IP has clustered, not as a complete census of every filer working the space.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 71 records: how filing activity moved year over year, and which IPC classes those filings sit under.
Filings rose to a 2020 peak, then thinned
Annual filings climbed from 4 in 2017 to a peak of 11 in 2020, then declined: 2021 recorded 6 filings against 1 in 2024, an 83% drop over that three-year span. Because publication typically lags filing by roughly 18 months, 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete and should not be read as a continued slowdown.
B25J manipulator claims dominate; force measurement is the largest adjacency
B25J (manipulators and robots) appears in 90.1% of the 71 records, confirming that most filings frame slip detection as a robotic gripper or hand problem. G01L (force and pressure measurement) reaches 26.8%, while B62D (vehicle steering) and G05D (non-electric variable control) each sit at 12.7%, marking smaller but distinct application branches beyond the core robotic-hand use case.
Shares are the percentage of the 71 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Incipient Slip Detection and Friction Estimation with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about incipient slip detection and friction estimation and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited prior art and a recent representative filing
US20240300094A1 — Method for controlling a robotic gripper using friction estimation
A gripper with a friction estimation module calculates static friction from constraining reactions on the gripping jaws, factoring in actuation force and the coefficient of friction of the gripper materials or lubricant. Dynamic friction is derived separately from jaw speed, sliding surface width, and the distance between sliding surfaces, using known lubricant viscosity.Filed by Camozzi Automation S.p.A., published 2024-09-12.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | JP2006297542A | Slip detection device on finger surface of robot hand | 53 |
| 2 | JP2008055540A | Slip detection device, slip detection method, and slip detection program | 32 |
| 3 | WO2011052827A1 | Slip detection apparatus and method for a mobile robot | 28 |
| 4 | JP2019018253A | Slip detection system | 25 |
| 5 | CN102666032A | 用于移动机器人的滑动检测装置和方法 | 24 |
| 6 | US10300969B1 | Slip detection for robotic locomotion | 21 |
| 7 | US20210171135A1 | Slip Detection for Robotic Locomotion | 16 |
| 8 | KR101152720B1 | Apparaus and Method for Detecting Slip of a Mobile Robot | 15 |
| 9 | EP2495079A1 | Slip detection apparatus and method for a mobile robot | 12 |
| 10 | JP2007253266A | Slip detection device, slip detection method, and robot hand device | 12 |
Citation counts favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations within the searched corpus; treat them as a measure of influence on later filings, not 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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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three patterns stand out once the raw counts are put in context: where claim density sits, how fast the field has cooled from its peak, and which geographies matter most.
The top tier is narrow but not closed
Five assignees account for just over half of all records, and the ranked list runs to 40 companies with most holding only one or two filings. That combination signals occupied core claim space at the top alongside genuine room for new entrants in adjacent applications.
Activity has cooled from its 2020 high
Filings fell from 6 in 2021 to 1 in 2024, an 83% decline over three years. Because publication lags filing by around 18 months, the most recent one or two years in any chart will understate true activity, so this cooling should be read as measured through 2024, not projected forward.
Filing is split across three roughly equal blocs
China and the United States lead receiving-office counts, with Japan close behind and Europe, South Korea and WIPO each in single digits. No single jurisdiction dominates the way top-5 assignee concentration might suggest, which matters for freedom-to-operate checks that only cover one region.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to incipient slip detection and friction estimation, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the claim space, and where it thins out
The leading assignee holds 12 of the 71 records; by fifth place that falls to 3, and by tenth place to 2, which is the shape of a field with one clear leader and a broad, thinly filed tail.
One filer sets the pace
The leading assignee's filing count is roughly four times the fifth-place total, suggesting a sustained internal programme around robotic grip and slip sensing rather than a single opportunistic filing burst.
A cluster of active but smaller programmes
Filers ranked second through roughly tenth hold single-digit counts each, a mix of robotics manufacturers and automotive and vehicle-systems companies applying slip detection outside the core gripper use case.
Most ranked filers hold one or two records
Below the top ten, filing counts drop to one or two records per assignee across the remaining ranked companies, indicating exploratory or defensive filings rather than dense portfolios, and leaving room for a new entrant to build a differentiated position.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Yujin Robot Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Boston Dynamics Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Camozzi Automation S.p.A. | 0 | — |
| University of Electro-Communications | 0 | — |
| Toyota Motor Corporation | 0 | — |
| Sony Group Corporation | 0 | — |
| University of Electro-Communications | 0 | — |
| GM Global Technology Operations LLC | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The aggregate numbers point to where to look next, not to a finished conclusion. Two directions are worth following up with the underlying records.
Check the top assignee's claim scope directly
A 12-record lead over a field where fifth place holds only 3 is worth reading claim-by-claim rather than assuming broad blocking coverage across every application area.
Explore assignee portfolios in EurekaTrack whether 2025-2026 filings reverse the cooldown
The -83% figure from 2021 to 2024 is the last complete comparison available; publication lag means the true 2025-2026 filing level will only become visible over the next year or so.
Set up filing-trend alerts in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
Incipient slip detection refers to sensing the earliest onset of relative motion between a gripper or contact surface and an object, before full slip occurs, typically through tactile, force or vibration sensing. In this dataset it is grouped with the broader terms friction estimation and slip detection because filings frequently claim all three together as part of a grip-control method. Most of these filings sit under IPC class B25J, covering manipulators and robotic hands, which appears in 90.1% of the 71 records in scope.
The ranking covers 40 companies across the 71 records in scope, with the leading assignee holding 12 records, well ahead of the fifth-place holder at 3. The top 5 assignees together account for 52.1% of all records, but the ranking then thins quickly into a long tail of filers with one or two records each. This shape suggests one or two sustained internal programmes surrounded by many smaller or exploratory filings.
Filings peaked at 11 in 2020, then fell to 6 in 2021 and to 1 by 2024, an 83% decline over that three-year span. However, patent publication typically lags actual filing by around 18 months, so the 2025 and 2026 figures in any chart are necessarily incomplete and should not yet be read as confirming a continued slowdown. The safest complete read is the 2021-2024 comparison.
US20240300094A1, filed by Camozzi Automation, claims a robotic gripper with a friction estimation module that calculates static friction from constraining reactions on the gripping jaws and dynamic friction from jaw speed, sliding surface geometry and known lubricant viscosity. It is a 2024-dated filing rather than a granted patent with settled claim scope, so its practical blocking effect depends on prosecution outcomes not yet reflected in this dataset. Companies working on gripper-integrated friction estimation with similar lubricant-dependent dynamic models should review its claims directly rather than relying on the abstract alone.
The dense filing cluster sits in B25J manipulator and gripper applications, at 90.1% of the 71 records, while adjacent classes like G01L force measurement, B62D vehicle steering and G05D non-electric control each cover 12.7% to 26.8% of records, meaning fewer competing claims. Sub-areas such as non-contact optical slip sensing, lubricant-viscosity-dependent friction models, and slip prediction for legged or mobile robots show lighter filing density in this dataset. These are reasonable areas to scout for a first-filer position, though a full freedom-to-operate search of the specific claim language is still needed before committing to a filing strategy.
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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.