Mobile Robot & AGV Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Filing has already peaked. 2023 recorded 144 filings against 78 in 2017 — the strongest year in the dataset — with 2022's midpoint of 75 confirming the growth curve has flattened rather than accelerated.
- China and the US dominate the docket. China (311) and the United States (283) together account for well over half of all receiving-office filings, ahead of Europe (158), WIPO (96), Japan (63) and India (49).
- The most-cited prior art predates the current filing wave. The five most-cited records include a 1994 autonomous mobile robot patent and a 2000 sensor-based pipe-navigation patent — foundational documents that any new SLAM or obstacle-avoidance claim still has to clear.
Filing growth compares 2021 (86 records) with 2024 (81) — 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 1,060 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks 1,060 patent families filed against navigation, obstacle avoidance, path planning, fleet management and docking accuracy for mobile robots and automated guided vehicles, spanning IPC classes G05D1, B25J5 and G01C21. Coverage runs from 2015 through the 2026 cut-off, with the most recent year necessarily undercounted because publication lags filing by roughly eighteen months.
The core classification, G05D (control of non-electric variables), appears in 883 of the 1,060 records — a strong majority — with G01C (navigation and gyroscopes) and B25J (manipulators and robots) as the next densest subclasses. Smaller but distinct pockets sit in G01S (radar and positioning), A47L (cleaning appliances) and B65G (conveying and material handling), pointing to where navigation IP has migrated into adjacent product categories.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Annual filing counts and IPC distribution for the search scope, drawn directly from the underlying patent family set.
A decade of filings that crested in 2023
Filings rose from 78 in 2017 to a peak of 144 in 2023, with the 2022 midpoint of 75 marking the point past which growth stopped compounding. The 2026 figure of 20 reflects partial-year publication lag rather than an actual collapse in filing activity, but the multi-year plateau before it is a real signal that the core claim space is filling up.
Control and navigation subclasses dominate
G05D accounts for 883 of 1,060 records, making non-electric control the backbone of this landscape. G01C (232) and B25J (211) form a substantial secondary tier covering positioning hardware and manipulator mechanics, while G01S, A47L, G06Q and B65G each carry a smaller but non-trivial share — evidence that navigation claims increasingly cross into cleaning appliances, logistics conveying and fleet-management software.
Shares are the percentage of the 1,060 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Mobile Robots and AGV Navigation with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about mobile robots and agv navigation and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaFoundational and representative filings
Obstacle avoidance method and apparatus for an autonomous mobile robot
Filed by Beijing Roborock Innovation Technology, this application describes an obstacle-avoidance method using two sensors that classify obstacles by the height range of their outermost surface, then adjust the robot's travel path along that surface accordingly. The two-tier height-based sensing approach is a concrete example of how docking-accuracy and obstacle-avoidance claims are being refined well past the foundational patents in the most-cited table.Abstract trimmed for length; see the full filing for complete claim language.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5324948A | Autonomous mobile robot for radiologic surveys | 333 |
| 2 | US7066291B2 | Robot system | 329 |
| 3 | US20160176638A1 | Method and system for automated transport of items | 320 |
| 4 | US20050166355A1 | Autonomous mobile robot cleaner | 273 |
| 5 | US6108597A | Autonomous mobile robot system for sensor-based and map-based navigation in pipe networks | 252 |
| 6 | US5911767A | Navigation system for an autonomous mobile robot | 184 |
| 7 | US5073749A | Mobile robot navigating method | 180 |
| 8 | US20160167226A1 | Systems and Methods for Capturing Images and Annotating the Captured Images with Information | 178 |
| 9 | US20180072212A1 | Free ranging automated guided vehicle and operational system | 159 |
| 10 | CN103558856A | 动态环境下服务动机器人导航方法 | 153 |
Citation counts are drawn from the same corpus and favour older filings by construction; treat them as a measure of influence on later art, 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 filing strategy
Four read-outs from the filing trend, technology composition and receiving-office data that matter for anyone deciding where to file or build next.
Growth has plateaued, not accelerated
The climb from 78 filings in 2017 to a peak of 144 in 2023 looks strong in isolation, but the 2022 midpoint of 75 shows most of that growth had already happened by the middle of the window. Flat-to-declining filing after a peak year usually means the obvious claim territory is occupied, not that interest has cooled.
Filing strategy is bifurcated between two blocs
China and the United States together outweigh Europe, WIPO, Japan and India combined. A filing strategy built only around one of these two offices will miss the majority of competitive activity in this space.
Control-of-non-electric-variables claims dominate the docket
With G05D present in over 83% of records, this is the subclass to search first for freedom-to-operate work. The secondary tiers — G01C navigation hardware and B25J manipulator mechanics — are where differentiated claims are more likely to still be available.
Foundational patents are decades old
The most-cited record in this set dates to 1994, with a sensor-based pipe-navigation patent from 2000 also in the top five. New SLAM and obstacle-avoidance filings are still being written against this older foundational art, which makes prior-art search depth non-negotiable for anything filed today.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to mobile robots and agv navigation, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| iRobot Corporation | WON CHIKYUNG | 2 |
| iRobot Corporation | SANDIN PAUL E | 2 |
| iRobot Corporation | OZICK DANIEL N | 2 |
| iRobot Corporation | OKERHOLM ANDREA M | 2 |
| iRobot Corporation | MAMMEN JEFFRY W | 2 |
| iRobot Corporation | HALLORAN MICHAEL J | 2 |
| Boomerang Systems, Inc. | SWASEY MERIN | 2 |
| Boomerang Systems, Inc. | CHECKETTS STANLEY J | 2 |
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear across the dataset, each linked by a shared count of 2 — a sign that this field is still dominated by single-assignee filing rather than joint development programmes.
Who holds the portfolio, and where momentum has stalled
Recent-year momentum figures show a field where several previously active filers recorded zero filings in the latest tracked year, consistent with the broader plateau in the filing trend.
Established filers have gone quiet in the latest year
Several assignees with prior filing activity, including iRobot and Seegrid, show zero filings and a -100% year-on-year change in the most recent tracked year. Given the eighteen-month publication lag, this likely overstates a real slowdown, but it is consistent with the multi-year plateau in overall filings.
Filing is concentrated at the top with a long tail
The assignee ranking spans the full 1,060-family set, with a small group of repeat filers holding disproportionate share and a long tail of single- or few-filing entrants behind them. This pattern is typical of a field where core navigation claims were staked out early.
Joint filings are rare
With only 10 co-assignee pairs recorded and each pair sharing just two filings, cross-company collaboration is not a meaningful feature of this landscape. Most portfolios appear to be built through internal R&D rather than joint ventures.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| iRobot Corporation | 0 | -100% |
| Robert Bosch GmbH | 0 | — |
| Seegrid Corporation | 0 | -100% |
| Jabil Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Shenzhen Roborock Times Technology Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Dematic Corp. | 0 | — |
| Google LLC | 0 | — |
| Delta Electronics International (Singapore) Pte Ltd | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this analysis
The filing trend and technology composition point to a field with an occupied core and thinner adjacent branches. The next steps depend on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, portfolio benchmarking or identifying filing gaps.
Run a freedom-to-operate check against G05D
With 883 of 1,060 records classified under G05D, any new navigation or path-planning filing should be checked against this subclass first, including the decades-old foundational patents still driving citation counts.
Explore G05D prior art in EurekaTrack momentum shifts before they show in filings
Several established assignees show zero filings in the latest tracked year. Monitoring application-stage activity, rather than only granted or published counts, can surface a strategy change before it appears in this kind of yearly trend.
Set up assignee monitoring in EurekaTest claim language in the under-claimed pockets
Fleet management, docking-accuracy calibration and confined-space SLAM sit in smaller IPC pockets than the G05D core. Drafting around these branches may face a thinner prior art wall than the core control claims.
Search adjacent IPC classes in EurekaCommon questions about mobile robot and AGV navigation patents
The assignee ranking behind this dataset of 1,060 patent families is concentrated at the top, with a small group of repeat filers holding a disproportionate share of filings and a long tail of entrants with only one or two filings each. Rather than naming a single leader from memory, the safest approach is to consult the ranked assignee table directly, since positions shift as recent-year publications continue to land. What is consistent across the data is that several previously active filers, including iRobot and Seegrid, show zero filings in the latest tracked year.
Filing rose from 78 records in 2017 to a peak of 144 in 2023, but the 2022 midpoint of 75 shows that most of that growth occurred in the first half of the window rather than accelerating toward the end. The apparent drop to 20 filings in 2026 is partly an artefact of publication lag, since patent filings typically take about eighteen months to publish. Taken together, the pattern reads as a plateau: the technology is still being actively filed on, but the growth phase has passed.
The core classification is G05D (control of non-electric variables), which appears in 883 of the 1,060 records in this dataset — a clear majority. G01C (distance, navigation and gyroscopes) and B25J (manipulators and robots) form the next tier, followed by smaller but distinct pockets in G01S (radar and positioning), A47L (cleaning appliances), G06Q (business data processing, relevant to fleet management), and B65G (conveying and material handling). Anyone running a freedom-to-operate search in this space should check G05D first, then expand into the secondary classes based on the specific application.
China leads with 311 filings at its receiving office, followed closely by the United States at 283. Europe (EPO) accounts for 158, WIPO/PCT filings for 96, Japan for 63, and India for 49. Together China and the US represent well over half of the tracked filings, so a competitive monitoring strategy that only watches one of these two offices will miss a substantial share of the activity in this field.
EP4636527A1, filed by Beijing Roborock Innovation Technology, describes an obstacle-avoidance method for an autonomous mobile robot that uses two separate sensors to detect obstacles within different height ranges, then configures the robot's travel path along the outermost surface of the obstacle detected. It is a relatively recent filing (dated 2025-10-22) and its practical blocking effect depends on how narrowly its claims define the dual-sensor, height-range-based detection mechanism versus more general height-based obstacle classification. Designers working on obstacle avoidance should review its full claim set against any design that segments obstacle detection by height tier, rather than assuming the abstract alone defines its scope.
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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.