Milking Automation Patents: Leader Concentration & Trends 2026
- One assignee dominates the ranking. the leader holds 52 of the records tracked in the assignee ranking against a fifth-place count of just 1, a gap wide enough that new entrants are almost certainly designing around one company's claims rather than a competitive field.
- Filing activity has already peaked and cooled. the trend ran from 0 in 2017 to a peak of 10 in 2018, then fell back to 2 by the 2022 midpoint — this is a mature claim space, not a growing one.
- Sensing classes sit well behind the mechanical core. A01J dairy equipment and A01K animal husbandry classes cover the majority of the 59 records in scope, while positioning (G01S) and imaging (G06T) each appear in only 10.2% — the sensing layer is comparatively open.
What this patent set covers
This landscape draws on 59 published records filed between 2015 and 2026 that combine automatic milking system or robotic milking terminology with claims touching teat detection, milk quality sensing, udder health monitoring, cow traffic or cleaning cycles, classified under dairy equipment and animal husbandry IPC codes. It is a narrow, mechanically-defined slice of agricultural automation rather than a broad livestock-tech survey. The scope favours records where the robotic milking arm and its sensing or hygiene subsystems are the actual subject of the claims, not general dairy farm software or herd management platforms.
Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the most recent year in the trend understates real filing activity and should be read as provisional rather than a genuine drop-off.
Filing trend and technology composition
The filing trend and the IPC composition together describe a field that grew quickly, peaked early, and has since consolidated around a small set of mechanical claims.
A short filing wave, not a sustained climb
Filings were at 0 in 2017, rose to a peak of 10 in 2018, and had fallen to 2 by the 2022 midpoint. Even allowing for publication lag understating 2025-2026, the shape is a wave that has already crested rather than an accelerating category.
Dairy equipment and animal husbandry carry the claim load
A01J (dairy equipment) appears in 62.7% of the 59 records and A01K (animal husbandry & fishing) in 54.2%, confirming that most claims are built around the physical milking and handling apparatus. G01S (positioning) and G06T (image processing) each sit at 10.2%, and G02B (optics) at 3.4% — the sensing and computer-vision layers that support teat detection are present but far less densely claimed than the mechanical core.
Shares are the percentage of the 59 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Milking and Livestock Handling Automation with Eureka
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Try EurekaThe documents anchoring this field
WO2025099536A1 — Robotic milking system
The filing describes a robotic milking arm with a teat detection system built from a laser source, a movable laser mirror, a camera, and an image processing device that derives teat positions from the resulting images, paired with a control system that drives the mirror coil from a DC power supply with current-measuring feedback.Filed by Lely Patent N.V., published 2025-05-15 — the most recent substantive filing in this dataset.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WO2005015985A2 | Improvements in or relating to milking machines | 105 |
| 2 | US7568447B2 | Milking machines | 42 |
| 3 | US20060196432A1 | Improvements in or related to milking machines | 38 |
| 4 | US20120325153A1 | Method for milking an animal, and milking arrangement | 14 |
| 5 | US20210076631A1 | Milking system | 5 |
| 6 | WO2009126022A1 | Detection device, and milking device and method therewith | 5 |
| 7 | EP3340779B1 | System for milking a group of dairy animals | 3 |
| 8 | US20180235176A1 | System and method for milking a group of milking animals | 3 |
| 9 | WO2017034392A1 | System and method for milking a group of dairy animals | 3 |
| 10 | US20180235174A1 | System and method for milking a group of dairy animals | 2 |
Citation counts are drawn from within this searched corpus and favour older filings; treat them as a signal of influence on later filers, not of current commercial importance.
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Three patterns stand out once the ranking, the trend and the IPC composition are read together.
One assignee, not a competitive cluster
The ranked leader holds 52 records against a fifth-place count of 1. A gap this wide means the practical question for a new entrant is not 'who are the competitors' but 'what has this one assignee already claimed', since the rest of the ranking is thin by comparison.
The wave has already passed its peak
Filing activity peaked at 10 records in 2018 and had dropped to 2 by 2022. Recent-year momentum across every tracked assignee shows 0 in the latest year, which combined with publication lag suggests a field in consolidation rather than active expansion.
Sensing and vision are add-ons, not the core claim
Positioning (G01S) and image processing (G06T) each appear in only 10.2% of the 59 records, versus 62.7% for dairy equipment (A01J). The mechanical milking apparatus is heavily claimed; the software and sensing layer that identifies the teat is comparatively lightly covered.
Co-filing is rare and localised
Only two co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, the strongest being a two-record link between an individual inventor and a specialist camera-sensing firm. This is a field of largely independent filers rather than joint development programmes.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to milking and livestock handling automation, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gate sits
The ranking is short and top-heavy, which narrows the practical competitive set to a handful of names and leaves several technical sub-areas comparatively open.
The dominant filer of the mechanical milking arm and hygiene claims
The top-ranked assignee accounts for the large majority of records in this dataset, spanning the robotic milking arm, teat detection optics and cleaning-cycle claims, including the most recent filing in scope.
A sensing-focused pairing around teat imaging
A camera and imaging specialist appears alongside an individual inventor in the strongest co-assignee pair in the dataset, pointing to a smaller, sensing-specific filing track distinct from the dominant mechanical-equipment filer.
Individual inventors and smaller entrants
Below the leader, the ranking thins quickly to single-digit and single-record filers, including at least one individual named inventor, suggesting most of the remaining activity is opportunistic rather than programmatic.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Lely Patent N.V. | 0 | -100% |
| ICEROBOTICS | 0 | — |
| PEACOCK ANDREW MARK | 0 | — |
| GREEN SOURCE AUTOMATION LLC | 0 | — |
| BOERSMA GERRIT | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a mechanically mature field with a thin sensing layer — the next step is usually to test a specific claim idea against the leader's existing filings.
Check freedom to operate against the leader's portfolio
With one assignee holding the large majority of the ranked records, any new mechanical milking or hygiene claim should be checked directly against that portfolio before drafting.
Run a freedom-to-operate check in EurekaProbe the sensing and vision white space
G01S and G06T each cover only 10.2% of the 59 records, which is a narrower base to search and design around than the dense A01J and A01K classes.
Explore sensing claims in EurekaCommon questions about this field
In this dataset of 59 records, one assignee holds 52 of them, far ahead of the next-ranked company or inventor. That single-assignee concentration means most freedom-to-operate work in this field starts with that one portfolio rather than a broad competitive survey. The remaining ranked entities each hold a small number of records, down to a single filing at fifth place.
No, based on the tracked trend it is not. Filings rose from 0 in 2017 to a peak of 10 in 2018, then fell to 2 by the 2022 midpoint, and every tracked assignee shows zero filings in the latest year. Publication lag of roughly 18 months means the very last year or two is always understated, but the multi-year decline from the 2018 peak predates that effect.
Dairy equipment (IPC class A01J) and animal husbandry (A01K) dominate, appearing in 62.7% and 54.2% of the 59 records respectively, reflecting a focus on the physical milking arm, stalls and handling apparatus. Positioning technology (G01S) and image processing (G06T) each appear in only 10.2% of records, and optics (G02B) in 3.4%, indicating the sensing and computer-vision components that support teat detection are comparatively lightly claimed relative to the mechanical hardware.
WO2025099536A1, filed by Lely Patent N.V. and published in 2025, describes a robotic milking arm with a teat detection system built around a laser source, a movable mirror, a camera and an image processing device that derives teat position from the captured images, plus a control system that drives the mirror coil from a DC supply with current measurement. It is the most recent substantive filing in this dataset and anchors the laser-based teat detection sub-area specifically, rather than the milking mechanism generally. Anyone building a laser-mirror teat-locating system should review its claims closely before finalising a design.
The evidence points to the sensing and positioning layer as comparatively open: G01S (positioning) and G06T (image processing) each cover only 10.2% of the 59 records against 62.7% for the core dairy equipment class. Co-filing is also rare, with only two co-assignee pairs in the whole dataset, suggesting little joint development around sensor fusion or non-vision health monitoring approaches. A first claim in that space would likely centre on a specific sensing modality — for example acoustic or capacitive udder monitoring — rather than another variant of the mechanical milking arm.
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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.
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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.