Smart Irrigation System Patent Landscape 2026
- Filing is still accelerating, from zero in 2017 to a 2026 peak of 10, with the midpoint year 2022 sitting at just 1 filing — most of the activity in this dataset is recent.
- China and India lead filing volume, each with 14 records, well ahead of Canada, the Netherlands, the United States and South Korea, which sit in single or low double digits.
- No assignee dominates, SR University is the only name showing filings in the latest year (2), and the rest of the field is a long tail of single- or few-filing entrants.
Filing growth compares 2021 (1 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 35 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This review tracks patent families at the intersection of automated irrigation control and controlled-environment agriculture — greenhouse irrigation, fertigation control and hydroponic irrigation — filtered to A01G25/16, A01G31 and A01G9/24. It captures 35 patent families published between 2015 and the 2026 data cut-off, drawn from filing offices in China, India, Canada, the Netherlands, the United States and South Korea. The scope deliberately excludes open-field irrigation that is not tied to a controlled-environment structure, so the set is a proxy for greenhouse and indoor-growing control systems rather than agricultural irrigation as a whole.
Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the 2026 count of 10 is a floor, not a ceiling — the true 2025-2026 filing rate is almost certainly higher once pending applications clear. Read the trend as a direction, not a final tally.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 35 families: how filing volume has moved year on year, and which IPC subclasses the claims actually sit in.
A late, steep ramp
Zero filings in 2017 and just 1 at the 2022 midpoint frame a field that was largely dormant for its first half-decade. The climb to 10 in 2026 concentrates most of the dataset's activity into the last few years, which matters for freedom-to-operate: recent filings are more likely to still be in prosecution and less likely to have settled claim scope.
Horticulture-first, with control and data layered on
Every record sits in A01G (horticulture and forestry) by construction of the search, but the secondary classes show where the actual innovation is landing: G06Q (business/commerce data processing, 8 records) and G06N (AI-based computing, 6) point to filings built around decision logic and scheduling rather than plumbing hardware, while G05B and G05D (control systems, 7 and 3) and A01C (planting/sowing, 7) show a smaller but steady hardware-and-control core. A01B and G01N appear only 3 times each, suggesting soil-working integration and sensor/material analysis are comparatively thin.
Shares are the percentage of the 35 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Smart Irrigation System Controlled Environment with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about smart irrigation system controlled environment and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe records other filings cite
Robotic agricultural irrigation and analysis system — US20190320601A1
An agricultural irrigation control system including a pump, a dual port and on/off diverter in fluid communication with the pump, a multi-port diverter in fluid communication with the dual port and on/off diverter, a controller board in electronic communication with the dual port and on/off diverter and the multi-port diverter, and a plurality of environmental sensors in electronic communication with the controller board, where the agricultural irrigation control system is configured for individualized administration of one or more substances to one or more agricultural products.Filed by AGROME INC, published 2019-10-24. The claim structure ties a specific plumbing arrangement (pump plus dual-port and multi-port diverters) to sensor-driven, per-plant substance administration.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CN105353656A | 一种基于模糊推理的智能温室灌溉控制装置 | 24 |
| 2 | CN106718360A | 一种生态农业用大棚灌溉控制装置 | 11 |
| 3 | CN102668949A | 一种温室灌溉控制系统 | 11 |
| 4 | CN110999767A | 一种智能灌溉控制管理系统 | 10 |
| 5 | KR1020140072594A | Greenhouse watering system | 6 |
| 6 | US20190320601A1 | Robotic agricultural irrigation and analysis system | 4 |
| 7 | CN113039912A | 一种基于物联网的大棚及水肥一体化灌溉控制方法 | 3 |
| 8 | CN115989763A | 温室灌溉控制方法、装置、系统及设备 | 2 |
| 9 | CN202956639U | 温室灌溉控制装置 | 2 |
| 10 | CN121667028A | 一主多从无线农业大棚灌溉系统 | 1 |
Citation counts inside a bounded corpus like this one skew toward older filings that have simply had more time to be cited — treat the ranking as a map of influence, not a ranking of current commercial importance.
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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Three read-throughs from the filing trend, the office split and the citation table.
Still in the early-acceleration phase
A midpoint year (2022) at just 1 filing, followed by a climb to 10 by 2026, means the bulk of the claim landscape has been laid down very recently. There is limited case law or granted-claim precedent yet — most of what exists is still moving through examination.
Two receiving offices carry most of the volume
China and India each account for 14 of the 35 families, together holding the large majority of filing activity, while Canada, the Netherlands, the US and South Korea each contribute a handful. Freedom-to-operate work should weight these two jurisdictions first.
Older Chinese filings anchor the citation graph
The most-cited records are fuzzy-logic and greenhouse-control patents filed well before the current filing surge, including CN105353656A, CN106718360A and CN102668949A. Their citation counts reflect age and corpus visibility more than continued commercial relevance today.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to smart irrigation system controlled environment, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
No single assignee controls this space. Activity is spread across universities, small technology firms and a handful of individual inventors, with momentum data showing only one name still filing in the latest year.
SR University
The only assignee in the momentum data with any filings in the most recent year, putting it ahead of a field where every other tracked name shows zero latest-year activity.
AGROME INC
Holder of the representative record US20190320601A1, a robotic multi-port diverter and sensor-driven dosing system — an early, specific hardware claim in a field that has since filled in mostly around software and control logic.
Fragmented ownership
With 35 families spread across a wide set of assignees including research institutes, regional agri-tech firms and individual inventors, no party has yet built a dominant claim position — the field still looks open to a well-drafted entrant.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| SR UNIVERSITY | 2 | — |
| AGROME INC | 0 | — |
| Intelligent Equipment Technology Research Center, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences | 0 | — |
| Qingdao Hengxin Huirui Industrial Technology Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Xin Qingqiang | 0 | — |
| Northwest A&F University | 0 | — |
| Zhuhai Quark Technology Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Hainan Yunmai IoT Technology Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
Where to take this
The dataset points to an early-stage, fragmented field with two dominant filing offices and thin secondary claim coverage. Here is where to focus next.
Run freedom-to-operate on China and India filings first
With 14 records apiece, these two offices carry the density that matters most for near-term clearance work, ahead of the smaller North American and European counts.
Explore assignee filings in EurekaWatch the AI-scheduling and G06Q overlap
G06Q (8 records) and G06N (6 records) show more filing activity than the soil-working and material-analysis classes, suggesting decision-logic and dosing-schedule claims are the more contested ground going forward.
Track emerging filers in EurekaCommon questions on this landscape
This dataset identifies 35 patent families published between 2015 and mid-2026 that combine automated irrigation control with greenhouse, fertigation or hydroponic contexts. That count reflects a specific IPC and keyword filter (A01G25/16, A01G31, A01G9/24 plus greenhouse/fertigation/hydroponic terms in title and claims), so a broader search on general agricultural irrigation would return a much larger number. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the true figure for 2025-2026 filings is likely higher than currently shown.
China and India lead with 14 records each, together accounting for the majority of the 35 families tracked. Canada and the Netherlands each contribute 2, the United States 2, and South Korea 1. This split suggests that clearance and competitive-monitoring work should prioritise Chinese and Indian filings before extending to the smaller Western markets.
No. The assignee ranking across 35 families shows no single dominant filer; recent-year momentum data lists only one organisation, SR University, with any filings in the latest tracked year, and every other listed assignee shows zero. This points to a fragmented landscape of universities, regional agri-tech firms and individual inventors rather than a small number of incumbents controlling the claim space.
US20190320601A1, filed by AGROME INC and published 2019-10-24, claims an irrigation control system built around a pump connected to a dual-port on/off diverter and a multi-port diverter, coordinated by a controller board that also reads a set of environmental sensors. The specific value is in individualized, per-plant administration of substances driven by sensor feedback, tied to that particular diverter arrangement. Anyone designing a multi-zone, sensor-responsive dosing system should review this claim structure closely, though a different valve or diverter topology may sit outside its scope.
The secondary IPC counts point to thinner coverage in soil-working integration (A01B, 3 records), material/sensor analysis feedback (G01N, 3 records) and non-electric control-variable regulation (G05D, 3 records), compared to the much denser G06Q and G06N counts around business logic and AI scheduling. A first claim combining fertigation dosing with a specific soil-condition sensor feedback loop, for example, would sit in comparatively open territory relative to the crowded scheduling-and-control core.
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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.