Robotics & Autonomous Systems Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Concentration is modest at the top. the leading assignee holds 198 records and the top 5 combined account for just 22.8% of the 3,159 records in scope — most of the field sits with a long tail of filers.
- Manipulator and robot claims dominate the class mix. B25J appears on 52.0% of records, more than four times the next most common subclass, meaning most filings still anchor on core mechanical/manipulator claims even as AI and control classes grow around them.
- Filing has cooled from its 2023 peak but not collapsed. 2021 to 2024 shows a -14% change (292 to 252), a pullback from a peak of 481 in 2023 rather than a structural decline — 2025-26 figures are still filling in due to publication lag.
Filing growth compares 2021 (292 records) with 2024 (252) — 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 3,159 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the robotics and autonomous systems patent record actually shows
The dataset covers 3,159 published records filed against robotic and autonomous-system claims spanning industrial, collaborative, service, maritime and humanoid robotics, plus the perception and localization functions that sit underneath them. Filing rose through the early 2020s to a peak of 481 records in 2023, and the most recent complete comparison — 2021 to 2024 — shows a -14% change rather than a sharp drop, since publication lags actual filing by roughly 18 months and the 2025-26 counts are still incomplete.
Ownership is not tightly concentrated: the leading assignee holds 198 records, the top 5 combined reach 22.8% of all records in scope, and the top 10 reach 31.3%. That leaves a substantial share of filings distributed across the rest of the 100 ranked companies, which is consistent with a field where mechanical and control-system claims (B25J, G05B, G05D) still outweigh the newer AI-classified filings (G06N) in raw volume.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 3,159-record corpus: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how records distribute across IPC subclasses (a record can carry more than one class, so shares sum past 100%).
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Filings climbed from 145 in 2017 to a peak of 481 in 2023, then eased to 252 by 2024 (-14% versus 2021's 292). 2025 and 2026 figures (84 so far for 2026) will rise as publication catches up with filing.
IPC subclass composition
B25J (manipulators & robots) covers 52.0% of records, well ahead of G06F, G05B and G05D at 12-13% each, with AI-classified G06N at 11.4% and imaging/vision G06T at 6.7% — the newer computational classes are present but still a minority of the claim base.
Shares are the percentage of the 3,159 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Robotics & Autonomous Systems Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about robotics & autonomous systems patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaA representative claim and the most-cited prior art
WO2025151883A1 — Integrating humanoid robots with autonomous vehicles in workflows
A robotic system includes humanoid robots configured to move within a commercial environment that includes totes that hold commercial product; at least one autonomous tugger, autonomous mobile robot, or automated guided vehicle configured to couple to and move carts through the commercial environment; and a control system communicably coupled to the humanoid robots and the autonomous tugger, autonomous mobile robot, or automated guided vehicle. The control system commands the tugger, mobile robot, or automated guided vehicle to move carts to a first location, then commands the humanoid robots at that location to perform coordinated handling tasks.Filed by Apptronik, Inc., published 2025-07-17 — illustrates how humanoid-robot claims are now being drafted around fleet coordination rather than the robot alone.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20200348662A1 | Platform for facilitating development of intelligence in an industrial internet of things system | 733 |
| 2 | US7308112B2 | Sign based human-machine interaction | 717 |
| 3 | US20210157312A1 | Intelligent vibration digital twin systems and methods for industrial environments | 716 |
| 4 | US20200389469A1 | System and method for tunnel-based malware detection | 532 |
| 5 | US20050271279A1 | Sign based human-machine interaction | 481 |
| 6 | US20160059412A1 | Robotic manipulation methods and systems for executing a domain-specific application in an instrumented envir… | 452 |
| 7 | US20220108262A1 | Industrial digital twin systems and methods with echelons of executive, advisory and operations messaging and… | 387 |
| 8 | US20190291277A1 | Systems and methods for operating a robotic system and executing robotic interactions | 373 |
| 9 | US20220187847A1 | Robot Fleet Management for Value Chain Networks | 341 |
| 10 | US20210133670A1 | Control tower and enterprise management platform with a machine learning/artificial intelligence managing sen… | 340 |
Citation counts favour older records simply because they have had longer to accumulate citations inside this corpus — treat them as a signal of influence, not of current technical relevance.
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Read together, the trend and composition data point to a field where mechanical claim space is heavily occupied but the surrounding software and coordination layers are not.
No single filer controls the field
The leading assignee sits at 198 records against a 3,159-record total, and the top 5 combined reach only 22.8%. That is a low-concentration field by patent-landscape standards — freedom-to-operate risk is distributed across many smaller filers rather than concentrated in one blocking portfolio.
Manipulator claims still anchor the corpus
More than half of all records carry a B25J manipulator/robot classification, while AI-model classification (G06N) sits at 11.4% and image processing (G06T) at 6.7%. Filers building on AI-driven perception or planning are still layering onto, rather than replacing, a mechanical claim base.
A pullback from a 2023 peak, not a collapse
Filing peaked at 481 records in 2023 and eased to 252 by 2024, a -14% change from 2021's 292. Because publication lags filing by about 18 months, 2025 and 2026 numbers will continue to fill in and should not yet be read as a continued decline.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to robotics & autonomous systems patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| Qualcomm Inc. | LI QIAOYU | 6 |
| Mujin, Inc. | LEI LEI | 4 |
| Qualcomm Inc. | TAHERZADEH BOROUJENI MAHMOUD | 4 |
| Qualcomm Inc. | ZHOU ZHICHAO | 3 |
| Qualcomm Inc. | XU HUILIN | 3 |
| Qualcomm Inc. | PEZESHKI HAMED | 3 |
| Qualcomm Inc. | LUO TAO | 3 |
| President and Fellows of Harvard College | WHITESIDES GEORGE M | 3 |
Co-assignee pairing is limited — 10 pairs identified in total, with the strongest pairs linking named individual inventors to corporate filers rather than joint ventures between companies, suggesting most robotics IP here is developed in-house rather than through formal filing partnerships.
Leaders, momentum and where the field is thin
The ranking spans 100 companies counted by records; it is the full list the dataset returns, not a top-50 or top-100 cut chosen for this page. Momentum among the largest recent filers has turned negative across the board in the latest year, which is consistent with a field working through the last filing wave rather than starting a new one.
A clear but not dominant leader
The top-ranked assignee holds 198 records against a 3,159-record total — enough to set the pace on filing volume but far short of the kind of concentration that would force most newcomers into licensing before they can file.
Even active filers are pulling back in the latest year
Qualcomm, the most active recent filer by count (18 in the latest year), still shows a -67% year-on-year change, and several other named filers show flat or negative momentum in the same period. That pattern is typical of a partial, not-yet-complete latest year rather than a genuine retreat.
Most of the field sits outside the top 10
With the top 10 combined reaching just 31.3% of records, the remaining 90 ranked companies — plus filers outside the ranking altogether — hold the majority of the corpus. That distribution favours entrants who can differentiate on a specific sub-claim rather than needing to out-file an incumbent.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Qualcomm Inc. | 18 | -67% |
| SANCTUARY COGNITIVE SYST CORP | 1 | -67% |
| Auris Health, Inc. | 1 | -50% |
| STRONG FORCE TX PORTFOLIO 2018 LLC | 1 | 0% |
| Strong Force VCN Portfolio 2019, LLC | 0 | -100% |
| Mujin, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Seegrid Corp. | 0 | -100% |
| SARCOS CORP | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this from here
The figures above describe the shape of the field; deciding where to file, watch or challenge needs a closer read of specific claims and specific filers.
Check freedom-to-operate on a specific sub-claim
Concentration is low overall, but individual sub-branches such as humanoid-fleet coordination or soft actuator materials can still carry a handful of blocking claims from the leading filers.
Explore claims in Patsnap Eureka →Track momentum, not just cumulative rank
Several of the largest filers show sharp negative year-on-year change in the latest partial year — that is a publication-lag artefact, not necessarily a strategic retreat, and is worth revisiting once the year completes.
Set up assignee monitoring in Patsnap Eureka →Draft around the thin classes before they fill in
G06N and G06T remain minority classes relative to B25J, which means claim space around AI-driven perception and planning in robotics is comparatively open today.
Run a white-space search in Patsnap Eureka →Common questions on robotics and autonomous systems patents
The leading assignee in this dataset holds 198 records out of 3,159 total, with the top 5 combined reaching 22.8% and the top 10 reaching 31.3%. That is a relatively low concentration for a patent landscape, meaning no single company controls a large share of the claim space. The ranking covers 100 companies in total, and most of the corpus sits outside the top 10, spread across a long tail of smaller filers.
Filing rose to a peak of 481 records in 2023, then eased to 252 by 2024, a -14% change from 2021's 292 records. That looks like a pullback rather than a structural decline, and because publication typically lags actual filing by about 18 months, the lower counts shown for 2025 and 2026 are still incomplete and will rise as more records publish. Treat any 'decline' narrative built only on the last one to two years with caution.
B25J, the manipulator and robot subclass, appears on 52.0% of the 3,159 records in scope, making it by far the most heavily claimed area. Control-related classes (G05B, G05D) and general computing (G06F) each sit around 12-13%, while AI-model classification (G06N) and image processing (G06T) are smaller at 11.4% and 6.7% respectively. Because records can carry multiple classes, these figures overlap rather than summing to 100%.
The class-level data suggests AI-driven perception, planning and fleet-coordination claims are comparatively thin relative to the dominant mechanical manipulator classification, even though they appear in a meaningful minority of filings. Specific sub-areas such as soft robotics actuator materials, maritime autonomous system localization and humanoid-to-AGV coordination protocols show lower filing density than core industrial manipulator claims. That does not guarantee an open field, but it does mean fewer entrenched blocking claims to search around before drafting.
WO2025151883A1, filed by Apptronik and published mid-2025, claims a system coordinating humanoid robots with autonomous tuggers, mobile robots and automated guided vehicles inside a shared commercial workflow rather than claiming a humanoid robot in isolation. That pattern — claiming the coordination layer between multiple robot types rather than a single machine — is a useful signal of where filers are now placing value, and it is consistent with the dataset's broader finding that AI and control classes are growing around, not replacing, the core manipulator claim base.
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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.