Industrial Robot Arm Motion Planning Patent Landscape
Industrial Robot Arm Motion Planning Patent Landscape in 2026
The corpus of 18 patent families is fragmented across roughly twenty applicants, with Mitsubishi Electric holding the largest single share. Annual filings peaked in 2018 and have eased substantially since, signalling a field that has moved past its primary growth phase.
Mitsubishi Electric leads a fragmented, early-stage corpus
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation ranks first with 3 patent records, followed by four applicants — Nanjing Vocational University of Industrial Technology, Centre Technique des Industries Mécaniques, Central South University, and Hyundai Robotics — each holding 2 patent records.
The top five filers account for 41% of the combined total across the hundred largest filers, a moderate concentration level for a corpus this small. No single organisation dominates; the remaining applicants each hold a single patent record, producing a flat, distributed tail.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mitsubishi Electric Corporation | 3 | |
| 2 | Nanjing Vocational University of Industrial Technology | 2 | |
| 3 | Centre Technique des Industries Mécaniques | 2 | |
| 4 | Central South University | 2 | |
| 5 | Hyundai Robotics Co., Ltd. | 2 | |
| 6 | ShanghaiTech University | 1 | |
| 7 | Yantai University | 1 | |
| 8 | Panasonic Holdings Corporation | 1 | |
| 9 | Tianjin Normal University | 1 | |
| 10 | Shenzhen Gongfu Robot Co., Ltd. | 1 |
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | THE IND & ACADEMIC COOP IN CHUNGNAM NAT UNIV (IAC) | 1 | |
| 12 | Qingdao Jiandong Industry and Trade Co., Ltd. | 1 | |
| 13 | BMW AG | 1 | |
| 14 | Guangzhou Xinglai Electromechanical Technology Co., Ltd. | 1 | |
| 15 | Tianjin Dingsheng Automation Technology Co., Ltd. | 1 | |
| 16 | Centre Technique de l’Industrie du Décolletage | 1 | |
| 17 | ThinkSoft Co., Ltd. | 1 | |
| 18 | Nachi-Fujikoshi Corporation | 1 | |
| 19 | Xunlida Intelligent Equipment Manufacturing Technology Co., Ltd. | 1 | |
| 20 | SRM Valliammai Engineering College | 1 |
The spread of applicants across industrial companies, universities, and research institutes suggests that no incumbent has yet established a decisive portfolio position, leaving space for focused entrants with a differentiated technical approach.
The most recent filing years are subject to publication lag and likely under-represent actual recent activity; the apparent absence of records in 2025–2026 should not be read as a cessation of filing. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
A 2018 filing peak and a dominant manipulator-focused technology mix
The annual trend chart and technology composition chart together reveal when and where innovation activity has concentrated in this field.
Annual filing trend
Annual filings peaked at 6 records in 2018 and have been subdued since, with single-digit counts in most subsequent years. The 2024–2026 bars reflect publication lag and should be treated as lower bounds rather than final totals.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
B25J (Manipulators and robots) dominates the technology mix with 26 records, far ahead of all other classes. G05B (Control and regulating systems) and B23B (Turning and boring) appear as secondary clusters, while G01L (Force and pressure measurement), B05B (Spraying), and B65G (Conveying) each contribute a small share, indicating scattered application-domain coverage.
↗ 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.
Industrial robot with automatic centering
The horizontal movement actuators 3 of an industrial robot arm 2 are deenergized after an initial engagement between a workpiece 8 grasped by a robot hand and a base member 10 disposed on a support table 12 so that any axial misalignment between the workpiece and a hole 11 in the base member is automatically corrected with the guidance of a chamfer 8a, 10b… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 一种工业机器人手臂视觉防撞操控方法 | 32 |
| 2 | Industrial robot with automatic centering | 26 |
| 3 | Force measurement module, tool-holder and robot ar… | 10 |
| 4 | Industrial robot device | 9 |
| 5 | 机器人视觉引导设备及机器人 | 5 |
| 6 | 一种舞台机械臂及应用该舞台机械臂的控制系统 | 5 |
| 7 | 一种工业机器人手臂 | 4 |
| 8 | Control method for industrial robot arm involves d… | 3 |
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.
What the competitive structure means for R&D investment
The combination of life-cycle stage, applicant concentration, collaboration patterns, and geographic distribution shapes the risk-reward profile for new entrants and incumbents alike.
Post-peak field with residual entry windows
The lifecycle evidence classifies this field as Decline, with annual filings easing back from the 2018 peak. A corpus of only 18 patent families means the patent thicket is thin, and white-space branches remain largely uncontested. New technical directions — particularly AI-integrated planning and force-sensing — may reset the cycle locally.
Lifecycle: DeclineFlat hierarchy with no dominant incumbent
The top five filers hold 41% of the hundred largest filers’ combined total, but the leader holds only 3 patent records. The absence of a high-volume incumbent means there is no broad blocking portfolio to design around. A targeted filing campaign of even modest scale could quickly establish a leading position.
Moderate concentrationNo co-applicant activity detected
Evidence pending: no co-applicant filings are recorded in the collaboration data. All applicants appear to file independently. This absence of cross-organisational collaboration is consistent with a fragmented corpus where no consortium or joint-development agreement has yet formed around shared standards or platforms.
No co-filings detectedChina-dominant filing geography with limited PCT reach
China accounts for 13 of the jurisdiction-level records, making it the primary examination venue. South Korea (4), Japan (3), Europe via EPO (2), and the United States (2) follow at a distance. Only 1 WIPO/PCT record suggests that few applicants are pursuing broad multi-jurisdictional protection, leaving geographic coverage in key markets like the US and Europe relatively sparse.
China-ledGo beyond the landscape: Eureka’s TRIZ Solution agent breaks down an R&D problem and returns patented concept solutions, each with a technical approach and cited patent & literature evidence.
Co-filing pairs, ranked by the number of jointly-filed patent families.
Mitsubishi Electric and Centre Technique des Industries Mécaniques lead by distinct technical routes
The two highest-profile applicants illustrate contrasting approaches: one rooted in industrial automation control, the other in precision machining integration.
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
Mitsubishi Electric holds 3 patent records, the largest share among all applicants. Its technology focus spans core manipulator and robot systems (B25J 9, B25J 13) and extends into spraying and atomising applications (B05B 12), indicating motion-planning work tied to industrial coating processes. No momentum signal is available for this applicant in the recent-period data.
patent records: 3Centre Technique des Industries Mécaniques
Centre Technique des Industries Mécaniques holds 2 patent records with a notably broad technical focus spanning turning and boring (B23B 27), manipulator systems (B25J 9), and force and pressure measurement (G01L 1) — a combination suggesting integration of motion planning with precision machining and in-process sensing. No recent-period momentum data is available for this applicant.
patent records: 2| Applicant | Recent (3 yrs) | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| ThinkSoft Co., Ltd. | 1 | ▲ new entrant |
| Xihua University | 1 | ▲ new entrant |
| Yantai University | 1 | ▲ new entrant |
Under-served IPC branches adjacent to the core manipulator class
Several IPC branches appear at low share relative to the dominant B25J class. These observations highlight areas where motion-planning coverage is sparse and technical adjacency could support focused filing.
B05B · Spraying and atomising
This branch holds only 2 patent records and a 4% share, yet spray-coating and surface-treatment robot arms represent a high-volume industrial application requiring precise motion planning for consistent film deposition. Mitsubishi Electric’s existing presence here confirms technical plausibility; the low record count suggests limited competition and a realistic entry path for applicants with coating-process expertise.
Search this in Eureka →G06N · Computing based on AI models
Only 1 patent record is classified under G06N (AI-based computing), despite growing industry interest in learned motion-planning approaches such as reinforcement learning and neural-network trajectory optimisation. The single filing by ThinkSoft (a new entrant) suggests the intersection of AI models and robot arm motion planning is essentially uncontested in this corpus, offering an adjacent technical route with strong forward momentum in the broader robotics literature.
Search this in Eureka →How leading applicants differ across technology routes
Strength of each leader across the main technology routes.
| Player | B25J 9 · Manipulators & robots | B25J 13 · Manipulators & robots | B25J 19 · Manipulators & robots | B25J 18 · Manipulators & robots | G05B 19 · Control & regulating systems |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co., Ltd. | Strong · 2 | Strong · 2 | Strong · 2 | Strong · 2 | Absent |
| Mitsubishi Electric Corporation | Strong · 3 | Strong · 2 | Absent | Absent | Strong · 2 |
| Centre Technique des Industries Mécaniques | Strong · 3 | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
| Tianjin Normal University | Strong · 1 | Absent | Strong · 1 | Strong · 1 | Absent |
| Tianjin Dingsheng Automation Technology Co., Ltd. | Strong · 1 | Strong · 1 | Strong · 1 | Absent | Absent |
| Central South University | Strong · 2 | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
| Nanjing Vocational University of Industrial Technology | Strong · 2 | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
Frequently asked questions
The corpus contains 18 patent families in scope. It is a small corpus relative to broader robotics domains, which means competitive positioning can shift meaningfully with even a modest filing programme.
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation holds the most patent records with 3, placing it ahead of four applicants — Nanjing Vocational University of Industrial Technology, Centre Technique des Industries Mécaniques, Central South University, and Hyundai Robotics — each holding 2 patent records.
The evidence classifies the field as Decline, with annual filings easing back from a peak in 2018. The most recent filing years are subject to publication lag and may understate current activity.
China leads with 13 jurisdiction-level records, followed by South Korea with 4, Japan with 3, Europe via EPO with 2, and the United States with 2. One WIPO/PCT record is present, indicating limited multi-jurisdictional prosecution so far.
B05B (Spraying and atomising) and G06N (AI-based computing) each have very low record counts — 2 and 1 respectively — relative to the dominant B25J manipulator class. A61B (Diagnosis and surgery) holds only 1 record, representing another sparse adjacent branch.
No co-applicant filings are recorded in the available evidence. All applicants appear to file independently, and no joint-development or standards-body consortium has been identified in this corpus.
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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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