Strain Wave Gearing Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- One filer, most of the field. Of 8 ranked assignees, the leader holds 26 records against 2 for the fifth-place filer — a long tail of single- and double-digit entrants below it.
- Filing has cooled since a 2017 peak. The trend ran from 8 filings in 2017 to 0 by the 2022 midpoint, with the most recent year still partial under normal publication lag.
- Claims concentrate in gearing, not controls. All 29 records in scope carry an F16H gearing classification; only 13.8% also touch G05D or H02P motor-control classes, leaving control-side integration comparatively open.
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks 29 published records at the intersection of strain wave gearing, flexspline reducers and precision speed reducers, filtered to filings that address hysteresis and torsional stiffness, flexspline fatigue, lubrication and grease life, transmission error, or backdrivability. The scope is narrowed by IPC to F16H49 (wave gearing), F16H1 (gearing generally) and B25J9 (robot manipulator joints), which is why the results skew toward mechanical gearing claims rather than broader robotics or actuator patents.
Coverage runs from 2015-01-01 through the 2026-07-31 data cut-off. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the most recent year of the trend understates actual filing activity and should be read as a floor, not a ceiling.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 29-record dataset: filings by year, and the IPC subclasses those filings carry. Because a single record can carry more than one classification, the composition shares sum to more than 100% of the record total.
Filings peaked in 2017 and have not recovered
Filings ran from 8 in 2017 down to 0 at the 2022 midpoint and stayed flat or declining through the most recent partial year, consistent with a mature, consolidated claim space rather than an expanding one.
Gearing dominates; control-layer classes are thinner
F16H (gearing and transmissions) appears in 100.0% of the 29 records in scope. F16C (shafts, bearings and couplings) follows at 27.6%, while G05D and H02P — the classes covering non-electric variable control and motor control — each sit at 13.8%, and G05B (control and regulating systems) at 10.3%.
Shares are the percentage of the 29 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Strain Wave Gearing and Precision Reducers with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about strain wave gearing and precision reducers and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records in this dataset
Positioning control device of actuator provided with strain wave gearing using H-∞ control (US10365628B2, Harmonic Drive Systems, 2019-07-30)
A positioning control device for an actuator with strain wave gearing uses a full-closed control system that feeds back load-shaft position and applies an H-infinity compensator. The compensator is designed against a generalized plant that treats angular transmission error in the strain wave gearing as a disturbance input, bounding the H-infinity norm of the transfer function from that disturbance to the evaluation output. The stated aim is suppressing mechanical vibration during positioning response that would otherwise be caused by the gearing's angular transmission error.Abstract reproduced from the filing as indexed; wording is the applicant's.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20200278017A1 | Rounded Strain Wave Gear Flexspline Utilizing Bulk Metallic Glass-Based Materials and Methods of Manufacture … | 17 |
| 2 | JP2010244343A | Method for compensating for angular transmission error in strain wave gearing | 17 |
| 3 | WO2010116607A1 | Method for compensating for angular transmission error in strain wave gearing | 13 |
| 4 | US20170254403A1 | Wave generator and strain wave gearing | 5 |
| 5 | US20200032891A1 | Strain wave gearing | 4 |
| 6 | US20200040978A1 | Strain wave gearing and wave generator | 4 |
| 7 | US10816073B2 | Strain wave gearing | 3 |
| 8 | US20180023678A1 | Wave generator and strain wave gearing | 3 |
| 9 | JP5207071B2 | 波動歯車装置の角度伝達誤差補償方法 | 2 |
| 10 | US9075399B2 | Positioning control system for actuator provided with wave gear device | 1 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations — read them as a signal of influence within this dataset, not as a measure of current technical 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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Read together, the trend, the citation table and the assignee concentration point to a field where the core mechanical claims are settled and where remaining activity clusters around control integration and materials.
The core mechanism was claimed early
The 2017 peak of 8 filings followed by a decline to 0 by 2022 suggests the fundamental flexspline and wave-generator geometry was substantially claimed in the mid-2010s. New entrants now compete on refinements — materials, control loops, manufacturing — rather than the base mechanism.
Transmission-error compensation and flexspline materials lead influence
The two most-cited records address angular transmission-error compensation and bulk metallic glass flexspline materials respectively, each cited 17 times. Both trace back to filings from the mid-2010s or earlier, consistent with citation counts favouring older records.
Gearing claims dominate; control classes are a minority
Every record in scope carries an F16H gearing classification, while G05D and H02P control-side classes each appear in only 13.8% of records. That gap is where control-layer claims — compensators, closed-loop positioning, motor-drive integration — remain comparatively thin.
One filer anchors the field, the rest are thin
Among the 8 ranked assignees, the leader holds 26 records while fifth place holds only 2. That gap makes the leader's granted claims the reference point for freedom-to-operate work in this space, with smaller filers occupying narrow niches around it.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to strain wave gearing and precision reducers, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
The ranking below covers the 8 assignees the data endpoint returns for this search — not a top-50 or top-100 list. One company accounts for the bulk of activity; the remainder are university labs and named individual inventors filing in small numbers.
Harmonic Drive Systems anchors the field
Harmonic Drive Systems holds 26 of the records in the ranking, far ahead of the next-largest filer. Its strongest co-assignee link is with Nagoya Institute of Technology, appearing together on 6 records — a signal of an active applied-research collaboration rather than a one-off joint filing.
Nagoya Institute of Technology is the closest academic collaborator
The pairing of Harmonic Drive Systems with Nagoya Institute of Technology is the strongest co-assignee link in the dataset, well ahead of the next pairs at 1-2 shared records. This points to a sustained industry-academia channel on transmission-error and control topics rather than scattered co-filings.
California Institute of Technology and named inventors fill the long tail
Below the leader, filers include California Institute of Technology and several individually named inventors (Okitsu Yoshifumi, Iwasaki Makoto, Yamamoto Masafumi among them), each holding small numbers of records. None shows filings in the latest year, consistent with the field-wide slowdown.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Harmonic Drive Systems Inc. | 0 | — |
| Nagoya Institute of Technology | 0 | — |
| California Institute of Technology | 0 | — |
| OKITSU YOSHIFUMI | 0 | — |
| IWASAKI MAKOTO | 0 | — |
| YAMAMOTO MASAFUMI | 0 | — |
| YAJIMA TOSHIO | 0 | — |
| SASAKI KOZO | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a consolidated mechanical core and a thinner control-integration layer. The next steps depend on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, whitespace filing, or monitoring a specific competitor.
Run a freedom-to-operate check against the leader's claims
With one assignee holding 26 of the 8-company ranking, any new mechanical flexspline or wave-generator design should be checked against that portfolio's granted claims before committing to a design direction.
Open Eureka to search the leader's claimsScope a claim in the control-integration gap
G05D and H02P classes cover only 13.8% of the 29 records against 100.0% for F16H, suggesting closed-loop control and motor-drive integration claims are comparatively under-filed relative to the mechanical base.
Draft a claim scope in EurekaTrack the academic-industry collaboration channel
The Harmonic Drive Systems and Nagoya Institute of Technology pairing is the strongest co-assignee link in the dataset; monitoring joint publications and filings from this pair is a reasonable early signal for where new claims will surface.
Set up a monitor in EurekaCommon questions about strain wave gearing patents
Harmonic Drive Systems is the clear leader in this dataset, holding 26 of the records across the 8-company ranking. The next closest filer holds only 2, so the field is heavily weighted toward one company's portfolio rather than spread evenly. Anyone doing freedom-to-operate work in this space should start with that portfolio before looking at smaller filers.
Filing activity peaked at 8 records in 2017 and had fallen to 0 by the 2022 midpoint, suggesting the core mechanical claims were largely staked out in the mid-2010s. That said, publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the most recent year in any such trend is understated and should not be read as the field going fully dormant. New activity, where it exists, appears concentrated in control and materials refinements rather than the base gear mechanism.
US10365628B2 covers a positioning control device for an actuator with strain wave gearing that uses a full-closed control loop and an H-infinity compensator to suppress vibration caused by the gearing's angular transmission error. It treats the transmission error as a disturbance input to a generalized plant and bounds the H-infinity norm of the resulting transfer function. This is a control-layer claim built on top of strain wave gearing hardware, not a claim on the gear geometry itself, so it is most relevant to anyone building closed-loop positioning systems around existing reducers.
Based on the IPC composition, control-layer classes are comparatively thin: G05D and H02P each appear in only 13.8% of the 29 records in scope, against 100.0% for the core F16H gearing class. That gap points to under-claimed territory in closed-loop transmission-error compensation, lubrication and grease-life prediction, and control integration for collaborative robot joints, rather than in the gear mechanism itself.
The two most-cited records in this dataset are both cited 17 times: one covers a rounded flexspline made from bulk metallic glass-based materials, the other covers a method for compensating angular transmission error in strain wave gearing. A related PCT filing on the same transmission-error compensation method follows at 13 citations. Because citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older filings, these results reflect accumulated influence rather than current filing 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.