Surgical Robot Mobile Platform Patents: Leaders & White Space 2026
- One patent carries almost all the citation weight. US20120053597A1, assigned to McMaster University, has 422 citations against a next-highest count of 17 — a gap wide enough that most later filers are building around it rather than past it.
- Filing activity peaked in 2021 and has not sustained. Seven families published that year against a 19-family total across the whole window, with the 2022 midpoint already back down to three — this is a narrow, not a growing, field.
- Claims cluster almost entirely in one IPC subclass. All 19 records sit in A61B, with only partial overlap into A61G patient-transport and B25J manipulator classes — cross-domain mobility engineering is thin.
A small, citation-concentrated field around mobile and repositionable surgical bases
The dataset covers 19 published patent families filed against search terms combining surgical robotics with mobile, cart-based or repositionable platform language. This is a narrow technical niche compared with surgical robotics broadly: it isolates the mechanical and control problem of moving a surgical robot base between procedures or within a confined environment, rather than the instrument or imaging layers built on top of it. Family counts, not raw document counts, are used throughout because they neutralise continuation filings and multi-jurisdiction duplicates in a dataset this size.
Filing activity is front-loaded around a single peak year and has not built into a sustained wave. Receiving-office data shows the United States as the primary filing venue, with PCT applications indicating some deliberate multi-jurisdiction strategy among a subset of filers, but Canada, Europe, Australia and India each register only one or two records — this is not yet a globally distributed filing pattern.
Filing trend and technology composition
Publication counts for the most recent one to two years understate true filing activity, since patent applications typically publish around 18 months after filing — treat the tail of any trend chart as a floor, not a ceiling.
A single peak year, no sustained climb
Filings rose from zero in 2017 to a peak of seven families in 2021, then fell back toward the 2022 midpoint of three. That shape — a spike followed by a decline — points to a field where an early wave of filers staked claims and the pace of new entrants since has not replaced them.
Concentration in A61B, thinner coverage elsewhere
Every one of the 19 records classifies under A61B (diagnosis and surgery), with five also touching A61G (patient transport and care) and five touching B25J (manipulators and robots). Only two records reach G16H (healthcare informatics), suggesting that connecting mobile platform mechanics to informatics-layer claims — scheduling, fleet coordination, data logging across procedures — remains largely unclaimed.
Shares are the percentage of the 19 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Surgical Robot Mobile Robot Platform with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about surgical robot mobile robot platform and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe record that anchors this field
US20120053597A1 — Mobile robotic surgical system
A mobile robotic surgical system which includes a mobile surgical robot for use in a mobile or confined environment and a control station in communication with the mobile surgical robot over a network. The mobile surgical robot includes a controller for controlling operation of the mobile surgical robot, a communications subsystem for communicating with the control station over the network, robotic surgical instruments controllable by the control station over the network, a detector subsystem for determining spatial information relating to a surgical environment of the surgical robot, and a motion stabilizer subsystem for facilitating operation of the robotic surgical instruments.Filed by McMaster University, published 2012-03-01. Cited 422 times within this dataset's citation network — a gap of more than 24x over the next-most-cited record.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20120053597A1 | Mobile robotic surgical system | 422 |
| 2 | WO2010102384A1 | Mobile robotic surgical system | 17 |
| 3 | US20210393353A1 | Medical Imaging Compatible Radiolucent Actuation of Translation Rotation Articulation Circumduction Joint | 9 |
| 4 | US20210386606A1 | Pneumatic Control of Surgical Table | 7 |
| 5 | US20200405561A1 | Medical Imaging Compatible Radiolucent Surgical Device Pneumatic Lift | 6 |
| 6 | US11813033B2 | Medical imaging compatible radiolucent actuation of translation rotation articulation circumduction joint | 2 |
| 7 | US12446980B2 | Surgical robot navigation and positioning system and measurement viewing angle multi-objective optimization m… | 1 |
| 8 | US20240130806A1 | Surgical robot navigation and positioning system and measurement viewing angle multi-objective optimization m… | 1 |
| 9 | CA2755036A1 | Mobile robotic surgical system | 1 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older publications; treat the ranking as a measure of influence on later filings, not of current commercial relevance.
Publication numbers are shown where the record carries one (9 of 9 rows); clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Put your own technology through the same analysis
Eureka on the web
When you want the answer in the next five minutes.
The agent works the prompt against patents and technical literature, citing every source.
Run your analysis now →MCP server & REST API
When it has to run inside your own pipeline.
Patent search, landscape analysis and assignee resolution as MCP tools. Drop them into any agent framework, or call REST directly.
Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing or freedom-to-operate decision
Three patterns stand out once the family-level data is put side by side: a citation cliff, a flat filing curve, and a classification footprint that barely leaves A61B.
One foundational filing, a distant second
US20120053597A1 sits at 422 citations; the next record, WO2010102384A1, sits at 17. Almost every later filer in this space is citing back to the same foundational disclosure, which is a strong signal that its claim scope defines the boundaries other applicants have designed around.
A spike, not a trend
The filing curve rises from zero in 2017 to a peak of seven families in 2021, then falls back to three by the 2022 midpoint. A field with this shape rewards defensive review of the peak-year filings more than it rewards betting on continued growth.
Mobility claims stay inside surgery classification
Every record in the dataset carries an A61B classification; overlap into A61G (5 records) and B25J (5 records) is partial, and G16H informatics overlap is limited to 2 records. Mobility and base-repositioning mechanics have not yet been extensively cross-filed against general robotics or informatics classes.
US-centred with a PCT tail
Eight records file first or nationally in the United States and five route through the PCT system; Canada, Europe, Australia and India each register only one or two records. Coverage outside a US/PCT core is thin enough that regional freedom-to-operate work outside North America starts from a smaller base.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to surgical robot mobile robot platform, with the prior art for and against each one.
A fragmented field with no sustained recent filer
No assignee in this dataset shows filing activity in the latest year — momentum has stalled across the board rather than concentrating around one active player. Co-assignment pairs are sparse and mostly reflect university-institute or individual-inventor pairings rather than corporate joint filings.
McMaster University
Holds the most-cited record in the dataset, US20120053597A1, describing a mobile robotic surgical system with a network-connected control station and motion-stabilizer subsystem. Co-assignment with an individual inventor (Williams David) appears in the pairing data.
Nankai University / Nankai University Shenzhen Research Institute
The strongest co-assignee pairing in the dataset links Nankai University with its Shenzhen Research Institute, indicating a single research programme filing under two related institutional names rather than two independent filers.
Michael Campagna
Appears as both an individual filer and in a co-assignee pairing under a variant name form, a pattern common among independent inventors rather than corporate applicants in this space.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| CAMPAGNA MICHAEL | 0 | — |
| McMaster University | 0 | — |
| Nankai University Shenzhen Research Institute | 0 | — |
| Nankai University | 0 | — |
| MICHAEL CAMPAGNA | 0 | — |
| WILLIAMS DAVID | 0 | — |
| LYMER JOHN | 0 | — |
| LEM SURGICAL AG | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a narrow but citation-concentrated field. The next layer of work is claim-level, not count-level.
Map claim scope against the lead patent
US20120053597A1's claims on mobile base control, network communication and motion stabilization are the reference point for any new filing in this space — a claim chart against it clarifies what is actually open.
Run a claim comparison in EurekaTrack the under-filed classification gaps
G16H informatics overlap sits at only 2 of 19 records — fleet coordination and procedure logging for mobile surgical bases is a plausible white-space branch worth a dedicated search.
Explore white space in EurekaWatch for renewed filing activity
With every tracked assignee showing zero filings in the latest year, a fresh filing from any of them — or a new entrant — would be a meaningful signal worth monitoring.
Set up monitoring in EurekaCommon questions about surgical robot mobile platform patents
The most-cited record in this dataset is US20120053597A1, assigned to McMaster University, describing a mobile robotic surgical system with a network-connected control station and motion-stabilizer subsystem. It carries 422 citations, far ahead of the next-most-cited record at 17, which makes it the reference point most later filers in this space are working around. Ownership across the rest of the dataset is fragmented, with academic institutions and individual inventors appearing more often than large surgical robotics corporations.
Based on this dataset, activity peaked at seven families in 2021 and had fallen back to three by 2022, with 19 total families across the 2015-2026 window. That is a spike-and-decline pattern rather than sustained growth, though publication lag of roughly 18 months means the most recent one to two years are undercounted and could revise upward. Anyone relying on this trend for a go/no-go decision should treat the most recent years as provisional.
Every record in this dataset classifies under A61B, the diagnosis and surgery subclass, with partial overlap into A61G (patient transport and care) and B25J (manipulators and robots), each appearing in five of the 19 records. Overlap with G16H healthcare informatics is limited to two records, suggesting that connecting base-mobility mechanics to scheduling or logging software claims is still a comparatively open area. This composition indicates the field is defined primarily as a surgical-device problem rather than a general robotics or informatics one.
The thin overlap between the A61B core and the A61G, B25J and G16H subclasses points to under-claimed branches: fleet-level scheduling across multiple mobile bases, base-to-instrument docking calibration, and informatics logging tied to base repositioning all show limited coverage in this dataset. A first claim in these branches would likely combine the core mobile-base mechanics already claimed by earlier filers with a specific software or docking function not yet covered. Any filing strategy here should start with a claim chart against the lead patent to confirm the gap is real rather than assumed.
It is not concentrated among corporate players in the way some surgical robotics sub-fields are. The strongest co-assignee pairing links Nankai University with its own Shenzhen Research Institute, and other pairings involve individual inventors filing under variant name forms, rather than large medtech companies. Combined with zero filings in the latest tracked year across every named assignee, this points to a field with one dominant foundational patent but no single company currently driving new filing volume.
Research Surgical Robot Mobile Robot Platform in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole surgical robot mobile robot platform corpus yourself, in your own scope.
Every answer comes back with patent numbers you can open.
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.