Robotic and Steerable Endoscopes Patents: Who Leads, Gaps 2026
- 75.0% of all filings sit with just five assignees out of 476 records in scope — this is a field with a settled centre of gravity, not an open race.
- Filing peaked in 2021 at 70 and fell to 33 by 2024, a -53% swing over that span; 2025-2026 counts are still filling in as publications lag filing.
- Manipulator and robotics claims (B25J) cover only 16.8% of the 476 records against 92.2% for core surgery claims (A61B) — a gap between the surgical claim and the mechanism claim.
Filing growth compares 2021 (70 records) with 2024 (33) — 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 476 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the robotic and steerable endoscope patent record shows
Robotic and steerable endoscopy sits at the intersection of flexible mechanism design and surgical software: tendon-driven bending, tip articulation, insertion-force sensing and operator-console control all appear as claim elements across the same document set. The 476 records in scope span 2015 through the 2026 cut-off, with the bulk of activity concentrated in a short window around 2019-2022. Patent families, rather than raw publication counts, are the fairer way to read this set, since a single platform program can generate many continuation filings in the same jurisdiction.
The assignee ranking runs to 68 companies, but the distribution is steep: five names account for three-quarters of all records, and ten account for close to seven-eighths. That leaves a long tail of single- and double-digit filers working narrower mechanism or software claims around the dominant platforms.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 476-record set: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the claims actually sit in.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Annual publications rose from 6 in 2017 to a peak of 70 in 2021, then declined to 33 by 2024 — a -53% move over that three-year span. 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete because publication trails filing by roughly 18 months, so the recent-year drop should not be read as the field cooling.
IPC subclass composition (share of 476 records)
A61B (diagnosis and surgery) covers 92.2% of records, confirming this is fundamentally a surgical-device corpus. G16H (healthcare informatics, 22.3%) and B25J (manipulators and robots, 16.8%) are the two next-largest clusters, followed by smaller shares in fluid handling, data transmission and imaging classes — each record typically carries several of these classes at once.
Shares are the percentage of the 476 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Robotic and Steerable Endoscopes with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about robotic and steerable endoscopes and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaFoundational and most-cited filings
Robotic endoscope and an autonomous pipe robot for performing endoscopic procedures
A robotic endoscope for performing endoscopic procedures in a tubular organ comprising a plurality of segments connected by flexible articulated joints, flexible linear actuators skewed sideways around each segment, a central cavity housing optical fibres, a fluid channel, an instrumentation channel and electrical wiring, and a network of tributary channels supporting the distal imaging assembly.Filed as US6162171A, granted 2000-12-19 — one of the earliest tendon-driven segmented endoscope designs in this dataset.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20190200844A1 | Method of HUB communication, processing, storage and display | 1,718 |
| 2 | US20190201104A1 | Surgical HUB spatial awareness to determine devices in operating theater | 1,664 |
| 3 | US20190201136A1 | Method of HUB communication | 1,634 |
| 4 | US20190205001A1 | Sterile field interactive control displays | 1,449 |
| 5 | US20190206562A1 | Method of HUB communication, processing, display, and cloud analytics | 1,350 |
| 6 | US20190125361A1 | Method for operating a powered articulating multi-clip applier | 1,281 |
| 7 | US11026751B2 | Display of alignment of staple cartridge to prior linear staple line | 1,132 |
| 8 | US20190200977A1 | Method for usage of the shroud as an aspect of sensing or controlling a powered surgical device, and a contro… | 1,044 |
| 9 | US20190125454A1 | Method of HUB communication with surgical instrument systems | 1,014 |
| 10 | US20190206565A1 | Method for operating surgical instrument systems | 997 |
Citation counts favour older documents in any searched corpus; treat them as a measure of influence on later filings, not of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three patterns stand out once concentration, timing and classification are read together.
Five assignees hold three-quarters of the field
With top-5 concentration at 75.0% of all 476 records and top-10 at 87.6%, new entrants are filing into a space where core surgical-console and tip-articulation claims are already staked out by a small group. Differentiation increasingly has to happen at the mechanism or software layer, not at the broad platform-claim level.
Activity has cooled from its 2021 peak, but the read is incomplete
Filings dropped from 70 in 2021 to 33 in 2024, a -53% change. Because publication lags filing by around 18 months, 2025-2026 figures are not yet a reliable signal of whether the pullback continues; the 2021 peak likely reflects a wave of platform filings maturing into publication that year.
Mechanism claims trail surgical claims by a wide margin
A61B claims cover 92.2% of records, but B25J (manipulators and robots) appears in only 16.8% and G06T (image processing) in 6.5%. That gap suggests many filers are anchoring claims to the surgical procedure or console rather than to the underlying actuation or vision-processing mechanism — an opening for mechanism-specific claim strategies.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to robotic and steerable endoscopes, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where activity is slowing
The leader board is short and the drop-off is steep; recent-year momentum figures show several major filers pulling back sharply, though this may partly reflect publication lag rather than a real stop in R&D.
One assignee accounts for a large share of the total
The leading assignee holds 196 of the 476 records in scope, well ahead of fifth place at 23 and tenth place at 8. That gap indicates a platform strategy built on continuation filings rather than a cluster of comparably sized competitors.
Even the leader's recent-year filings have slowed
The top assignee filed only 1 record in the latest year, down 80% year over year, and several other tracked assignees show 0 filings in the latest year with -100% YoY change. Given the roughly 18-month publication lag, this likely understates true recent activity rather than confirming a stop.
Co-filing is limited and concentrated in one pairing
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear across the dataset, and the strongest pairing is far more frequent than the others, pointing to a specific joint-development relationship rather than a broad pattern of industry co-filing.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Auris Health Inc | 1 | -80% |
| EndoMaster | 0 | — |
| Cilag GmbH International | 0 | -100% |
| CMR Surgical Ltd | 0 | -100% |
| Neptune Medical Inc | 0 | -100% |
| Noah Medical Corp | 0 | -100% |
| EndoMaster | 0 | — |
| Auris Surgical Robotics Inc | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to three practical next steps for a team deciding where to file or where to watch.
Map claim scope against the leader's portfolio
With one assignee holding 196 of 476 records, a claim-by-claim comparison against that portfolio will show which tendon-driven or console-control elements are already blocked and which remain open.
Explore assignee portfolios in EurekaTrack the under-claimed mechanism classes
B25J and G06T shares remain well below the A61B baseline, suggesting mechanism- and vision-specific claims have more room than procedure-level claims.
Run a white space search in EurekaWatch citation leaders for design-around risk
The most-cited records in this set cluster around surgical-hub communication and control claims; any new console or connectivity design should be checked against these first.
Review cited prior art in EurekaCommon questions about robotic and steerable endoscope patents
One assignee dominates this dataset with 196 of the 476 records in scope, far ahead of the fifth-ranked assignee at 23 and the tenth-ranked at 8. The top five assignees combined account for 75.0% of all records, and the top ten reach 87.6%. This means the field has a clear leader plus a small group of secondary players, rather than a broad, even spread of competitors.
Filing activity rose steadily through the late 2010s, peaked at 70 records in 2021, and had fallen to 33 by 2024, a -53% change over that three-year window. However, publication typically lags actual filing by around 18 months, so the lower counts in 2025 and 2026 are incomplete rather than proof the field is slowing. The 2021 peak is the most reliable read of when filing activity was highest.
Almost all records, 92.2% of the 476 in scope, carry an A61B classification covering diagnosis and surgery, which is expected given the search criteria. Healthcare informatics (G16H) appears in 22.3% of records and manipulator/robotics claims (B25J) in 16.8%, with smaller shares in fluid-device, data-transmission and imaging classes. Because a single record can carry multiple classes, these shares add up to more than 100%.
The clearest gap is between surgical-procedure claims and mechanism-level claims: A61B coverage sits at 92.2% of records while B25J, the manipulator and robotics class, covers only 16.8%. That suggests actuation mechanisms, tip-articulation control loops and force-feedback sensing are comparatively under-claimed relative to the broader surgical method space. Co-filing is also limited, with only 10 identified co-assignee pairs, indicating most development happens within single organisations rather than through joint filings.
US6162171A, granted in 2000, describes a segmented robotic endoscope using flexible linear actuators skewed around each segment to achieve tendon-driven bending, with a central cavity carrying optical fibres, fluid channels and instrumentation. It is one of the earliest tendon-driven segmented designs in this dataset and establishes prior art for basic segment-and-actuator architectures. Anyone filing a new segmented, tendon-driven mechanism should check claim overlap against it even though it predates the bulk of the dataset's activity.
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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.