Quadruped Robot Actuation Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Thin but citation-heavy field. just 21 patent families total, yet the oldest record (US20110231050A1) has been cited 294 times, meaning nearly every later filer had to design around it.
- Filing activity has gone flat. the peak year was 2019 at 6 filings, the 2022 midpoint sits at 0, and no assignee shows filings in the latest year — momentum has stalled rather than accelerated.
- Claims cluster in vehicle mechanics, not control software. 20 of 21 records sit under B62D (motor vehicles & steering) and 15 under B25J (manipulators), while G16Z, G06F and G05D each carry only 1-4 records.
Filing growth compares 2021 (2 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 21 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
A narrow patent record built on one heavily cited foundation
Quadruped robot actuation is a small filing area relative to robotics overall: this dataset holds only 21 patent families published between 2015 and 2026. The field is old-heavy rather than broad — a handful of early filings, led by US20110231050A1 with 294 citations and its continuation US20130238183A1 with 108, anchor most of the downstream claim language on leg mechanics and in-line drive trains. Later entrants, including US10017218B1 on gait-behavior targeting, cite this core rather than displacing it.
Filing activity peaked in 2019 at 6 records and has since gone quiet, with the 2022 midpoint at zero and no assignee showing activity in the most recent year. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the last one to two years understate true filing activity, but the flat trend through the mid-period is not an artifact of that lag alone.
Where the filings sit, and what has slowed
The technology composition and receiving-office data point to a field defined more by mechanical drivetrain claims than by control algorithms or software layers.
Flat filing trend since the 2019 peak
Filings ran to 6 in 2019, the high point of the series, then receded toward zero by the 2022 midpoint with no assignee recording a filing in the latest year. That pattern reads as a mature, low-activity niche rather than a technology in an active filing race.
Concentration in B62D and B25J
20 of 21 records classify under B62D (motor vehicles & steering) and 15 under B25J (manipulators & robots), with much smaller counts in G16Z, G06F, G01C and G05D. That skew shows claim activity has focused on the mechanical leg and drivetrain layer rather than on perception, gait-planning software, or application-specific computing.
Shares are the percentage of the 21 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Quadruped Robot Actuation with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about quadruped robot actuation and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe prior art every actuation filing has to clear
Legged robot continuous hopping control method and legged robot and computer readable storage medium using the same (US20210221455A1)
The filing divides each hopping phase into a desired entry stage, an actual entry stage, a during stage, and an exit and state-transiting stage. It detects transitions between acceleration, flight and deceleration phases, updates robot state information from that detection, and controls continuous hopping by moving the robot through the defined stage sequence.Filed by UBTECH Robotics, published 2021-07-22 — a control-method claim layered on top of the mechanical actuation core rather than a new drivetrain design.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20110231050A1 | In-Line Legged Robot Vehicle and Method for Operating | 294 |
| 2 | US20130238183A1 | Method of operating an in-line legged robot vehicle | 108 |
| 3 | US10017218B1 | Achieving a target gait behavior in a legged robot | 38 |
| 4 | US9089968B2 | Operating an in-line legged robot vehicle in ballistic flight | 20 |
| 5 | CN104386158A | 一种基于串联弹性驱动器的四足机器人 | 18 |
| 6 | US20210221455A1 | Legged robot continuous hopping control method and legged robot and computer readable storage medium using th… | 17 |
| 7 | US12054208B2 | Achieving a target gait behavior in a legged robot | 15 |
| 8 | US10144465B1 | Achieving a target gait behavior in a legged robot | 10 |
| 9 | CN110254552A | 一种变刚度的仿生四足机器人柔性连续体脊柱机构 | 6 |
| 10 | US11319005B2 | Achieving a target gait behavior in a legged robot | 5 |
Citation counts favor older filings in any searched corpus; treat them as a signal of influence on later claim drafting, not as a ranking of current technical 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.
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
Three patterns matter more than the raw counts: a dominant citation core, a stalled filing trend, and a mechanical-claims skew that leaves control and sensing layers comparatively open.
One filing anchors the whole field
US20110231050A1 and its continuation US20130238183A1 together account for the bulk of citation weight in this dataset. Any new actuation claim touching in-line leg mechanics is likely to be examined against this pair first.
Activity has stalled, not accelerated
The peak of 6 filings in 2019 has not been repeated, the 2022 midpoint is empty, and no assignee in the ranking shows a filing in the most recent year. That is consistent with a niche where the core mechanical claims were staked out early.
Mechanical drivetrain claims dominate
B62D (motor vehicles & steering) and B25J (manipulators) between them cover almost every record, while G16Z, G06F, G01C and G05D each hold only one to four. Claim activity has concentrated on the physical actuator and leg linkage rather than on gait software or sensor fusion.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to quadruped robot actuation, with the prior art for and against each one.
A small pool of holders, none currently active
The assignee ranking spans university labs, individual inventors and established robotics firms, but the recent-year momentum column reads zero across the board — no tracked assignee filed in the latest year.
Boston Dynamics holds foundational claims but has gone quiet
Boston Dynamics appears in the assignee ranking tied to the highly cited in-line legged robot vehicle lineage, but shows no filings in the most recent tracked year in this dataset.
University labs hold a meaningful share of the ranking
Hebei University of Technology, Yale University, Wuhan University of Technology and Wuhan University all appear as assignees, reflecting continued academic interest in leg actuation even as commercial filing has slowed.
UBTECH Robotics files on control method, not drivetrain
UBTECH Robotics' representative filing addresses continuous hopping control rather than actuator hardware, illustrating how later entrants have layered software claims on top of the earlier mechanical core instead of contesting it directly.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Boston Dynamics | 0 | — |
| GOULDING JOHN R | 0 | — |
| Hebei University of Technology | 0 | — |
| Google LLC | 0 | — |
| Yale University | 0 | — |
| UBTECH Robotics Corp Ltd | 0 | — |
| Wuhan University of Technology | 0 | — |
| Wuhan University | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The raw counts point to a narrow, citation-anchored field. Turning that into a filing or freedom-to-operate decision means going deeper into the specific claims and adjacent branches.
Map claims against the cited core
Run the specific independent claims of US20110231050A1 and US20130238183A1 against any new actuation concept before drafting, since most downstream filings in this dataset had to design around this pair.
Explore claim charts in EurekaTrack the quiet assignees
Zero recent-year filings does not mean zero interest; monitor Boston Dynamics, UBTECH Robotics and the tracked university labs for renewed activity as the publication lag window closes.
Set up assignee monitoring in EurekaTest the under-claimed branches
Series elastic compliance tuning and quasi-direct drive torque control show thin coverage relative to the mechanical core; a targeted prior-art search there can confirm whether a first claim is genuinely open.
Run a white-space search in EurekaCommon questions on quadruped actuation patents
This dataset tracks 21 patent families published between 2015 and 2026 that match quadruped and legged robot actuation claims under classifications like B25J, B62D and H02K7. That is a small field compared to robotics broadly, and it is concentrated around a handful of heavily cited foundational filings rather than spread across many independent inventors. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent one to two years in any such count will always be undercounted relative to true filing activity.
The most-cited records in this space trace back to an in-line legged robot vehicle lineage associated with Boston Dynamics, with US20110231050A1 alone cited 294 times. Other assignees in the ranking include UBTECH Robotics, Google, Yale University, and several Chinese universities including Hebei University of Technology, Wuhan University and Wuhan University of Technology. None of these assignees shows filing activity in the most recent tracked year, which suggests the core claim positions were established early and have not been significantly contested since.
A series elastic actuator places a compliant, spring-like element between the motor and the output joint, letting the leg absorb impact and modulate force more precisely than a rigid drivetrain. It shows up directly in the search criteria for this dataset alongside quasi-direct drive actuators and high-torque actuator designs. Compliance-tuning claims around series elastic actuators appear comparatively thin in this dataset relative to the dominant mechanical leg-linkage claims, making it one of the areas worth a closer prior-art check before filing.
Based on this dataset, filing activity peaked in 2019 at 6 records and has since fallen, with the 2022 midpoint at zero and no assignee recording a filing in the latest tracked year. That pattern points to a plateaued or declining filing trend rather than active growth, though the very latest years are understated because of normal 18-month publication lag. A field with high density in a few years but no current momentum typically means the core claim space is already staked out, not that the technology itself is stagnant.
The classification data shows 20 of 21 records sitting under B62D (motor vehicles & steering) and 15 under B25J (manipulators), while control-adjacent classifications like G16Z, G06F, G01C and G05D each carry only one to four records. That imbalance suggests the mechanical actuator and leg-linkage layer is densely claimed while sensing, torque-control software, and thermal management for actuators are comparatively open. A first claim in those thinner branches has a better chance of avoiding direct overlap with the heavily cited mechanical core.
Research Quadruped Robot Actuation in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole quadruped 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.
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.