Soft-Robot Shape Sensing Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
A data-backed look at soft-robot and continuum-robot shape and deformation sensing patents: filing trends since 2017, the IPC classes carrying the claims, concentration among leading assignees, and where white space rema
Filing growth = 2021 (25 records) → 2024 (11); 2024 is the last year we treat as complete. Top-5 share = the 5 largest assignees ÷ all 157 records in scope (CR5), not the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Soft and continuum robots deform continuously along their body, so knowing their shape or curvature in real time is a precondition for closed-loop control. This landscape tracks patents and published applications claiming shape, deformation, curvature or configuration sensing on soft robots, soft actuators and continuum robots, together with the strain, capacitive, resistive or optical sensor mechanisms used to close that feedback loop. The scope spans 157 records filed or published between 2015 and the 2026 data cut-off.
Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the most recent one to two years in any trend understate actual filing activity. The analysis below treats 2024 as the last complete year and reads 2025-2026 as still filling in.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 157 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claims. Because a single record can sit in more than one class, the composition shares add up to more than 100%.
Filing rose to a 2021 peak, then cooled
Annual filings climbed from 10 in 2017 to a peak of 25 in 2021, then declined to 11 by 2024 — a 56% drop over that three-year span. 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete due to publication lag and should not be read as a continued decline.
Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in. Growth rates on this page therefore end at 2024; running them to the last bar would understate the field.
Manipulators and surgical diagnosis classes dominate
B25J (manipulators and robots) appears in 47.8% of the 157 records and A61B (diagnosis and surgery) in 35.0%, confirming that surgical and industrial continuum-robot control is where most shape-sensing claims land. G06T (image processing), G16H (healthcare informatics), G01L (force and pressure measurement) and F15B (fluid-pressure actuators) each cover a smaller but still material slice of the same records.
Shares are the percentage of the 157 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Soft Robotics: Soft-Robot Shape and Deformation Sensing Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about soft robotics: soft-robot shape and deformation sensing patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative filing and most-cited prior art
WO2025072201A1 — Robotic control for continuum robot (Canon U.S.A.)
The application covers devices, systems and methods for robotic control, correction, adjustment and smoothing of a continuum robot as it moves — including correcting individual sections of the robot, handling state transitions, and smoothing the robot's path. Target applications include imaging and diagnosis of gastro-intestinal, cardiac, bronchial and ophthalmic anatomy via optical instruments delivered through the continuum robot.Filed 2025-04-03 by Canon U.S.A., Inc.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20140330432A1 | Systems and methods for safe compliant insertion and hybrid force/motion telemanipulation of continuum robots | 149 |
| 2 | US20160052131A1 | Flexible and Stretchable Electronic Strain-limited Layer for Soft Actuators | 89 |
| 3 | US20190015233A1 | Fabric-Based Soft Actuators | 85 |
| 4 | US20210369394A1 | Intelligent Assistance (IA) Ecosystem | 68 |
| 5 | US20230157762A1 | Extended Intelligence Ecosystem for Soft Tissue Luminal Applications | 63 |
| 6 | US20170239821A1 | Sensors for Soft Robots and Soft Actuators | 60 |
| 7 | US20230157757A1 | Extended Intelligence for Pulmonary Procedures | 55 |
| 8 | WO2013158978A1 | Method and system for compliant insertion of continuum robots | 48 |
| 9 | US20130131868A1 | Continuum robots and control thereof | 45 |
| 10 | US20190390985A1 | Real-time surface shape sensing for flexible structures | 44 |
Citation counts are drawn from within this searched corpus and skew toward older records — read them as a signal of influence on the field, not of current relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Read together, the concentration, trend and class data point to a field with an established core and a thinning frontier.
The top of the field is dense, the rest is thin
The leading assignee alone accounts for 39 records, and the top 5 combined hold 58.6% of the 157 records in scope. Behind them, a ranked field of 64 companies stretches into a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants — the concentration sits at the very top, not spread evenly across a large group.
Activity has cooled from its 2021 peak
Annual filings rose from 10 in 2017 to a peak of 25 in 2021, then fell to 11 by 2024, a 56% decline over three years. That pattern reads less as abandonment of the space and more as consolidation around claim territory already staked out by the leaders.
Surgical continuum robots pull the most claims
B25J (manipulators and robots) and A61B (diagnosis and surgery) are the two largest classes by a wide margin, at 47.8% and 35.0% of the 157 records respectively. Smaller but recurring classes — G06T image processing, G16H healthcare informatics, G01L force measurement, F15B fluid actuation — show that sensing claims are increasingly bundled with software and diagnostic layers rather than filed as standalone hardware.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to soft robotics: soft-robot shape and deformation sensing patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| Canon U.S.A., Inc. | Brigham and Women's Hospital | 3 |
| Vanderbilt University | WEBSTER III ROBERT JAMES | 2 |
| Vanderbilt University | RUCKER DANIEL CALEB | 2 |
| President and Fellows of Harvard College | YANG DIAN | 1 |
| President and Fellows of Harvard College | WHITESIDES GEORGE M | 1 |
| President and Fellows of Harvard College | TAYI ALOK SURYAVAMSEE | 1 |
| President and Fellows of Harvard College | MOSADEGH BOBAK | 1 |
| President and Fellows of Harvard College | MARTINEZ RAMSES V | 1 |
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear across the dataset, and the strongest pairs are university-industry or university-inventor links rather than company-to-company alliances — co-filing is not yet a common strategy in this space.
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next questions for anyone deciding where to file or where to license.
Map the white space behind the surgical cluster
With B25J and A61B carrying most of the claim density, sensing approaches built for non-surgical continuum robots — industrial inspection, wearable actuators, soft grippers outside a medical context — look comparatively open.
Explore white space in EurekaWatch the leader's recent filings closely
A single assignee holds 39 of the 157 records; tracking its most recent publications, including continuum-robot control filings like WO2025072201A1, shows where the claim frontier is actually moving next.
Track assignee filings in EurekaRe-run the trend once 2025-2026 fill in
Publication lag means the apparent cool-down after 2021 is only confirmed through 2024; revisiting the filing trend in twelve months will show whether the decline held or reversed.
Set a monitoring alert in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
In this landscape, a record has to claim shape, deformation, curvature or configuration sensing, estimation or reconstruction on a soft robot, soft actuator or continuum robot, and that sensing has to feed into feedback, control, state, pose or motion. This excludes patents that mention soft robots only in passing or that cover rigid-body sensing unrelated to continuous deformation. The scope also includes the underlying sensor mechanisms — strain, capacitive, resistive or optical sensors — when they are claimed as part of that shape-sensing function. That combination of body-type and function keeps the 157 records tightly focused on the sensing-for-control problem rather than soft robotics broadly.
A ranked field of 64 companies and institutions appears in the assignee data, with the leader holding 39 of the 157 records in scope — a substantial single-entity share. The top 5 assignees combined account for 58.6% of all records, and the top 10 account for 73.2%, so concentration is real but not absolute; more than a quarter of records sit outside the top 10. The list mixes universities, medical device makers and industrial and imaging companies, reflecting the field's split between surgical robotics and general manipulator control.
Filing rose from 10 records in 2017 to a peak of 25 in 2021, then fell to 11 by 2024 — a 56% decline over that three-year span, treating 2024 as the last complete year. That is a real cool-down from the 2021 peak, not a sign the field is dead; it more likely reflects consolidation of claim territory by early movers. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete and should not be read as evidence the decline is continuing or accelerating.
B25J, the manipulators and robots class, appears in 47.8% of the 157 records, and A61B, diagnosis and surgery, appears in 35.0% — together these two classes anchor the field around surgical and industrial continuum-robot control. Smaller but recurring classes include G06T (image data processing, 12.1%), G16H (healthcare informatics, 11.5%), G01L (force and pressure measurement, 8.9%), G06F (digital data processing, 8.9%) and F15B (fluid-pressure actuators, 8.3%). Because records can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares overlap rather than sum to 100%, showing that most filings bundle mechanical sensing with software, imaging or healthcare-informatics claims.
WO2025072201A1, filed by Canon U.S.A. in April 2025, covers devices, systems and methods for correcting, adjusting and smoothing the state of a continuum robot as it moves, including correction of individual sections and handling of state transitions along the robot's path. Its stated applications are imaging and diagnosis of gastro-intestinal, cardiac, bronchial and ophthalmic anatomy delivered through optical instruments on the continuum robot. It illustrates how recent filings in this space increasingly combine mechanical shape-correction claims with specific clinical imaging use cases rather than claiming sensing hardware alone.
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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.