CES generated a lot of stories about robots. The problem is that the signal to noise ratio is poor. While there are some real gems hidden around the expo floors, the majority of robots on display are nothing but PR grabs, or very wishful thinking.
Over the last 12 years, about the only robots I can think of at CES that are still available in the real world (excluding robot vacuum cleaners) are John Deere and Blue River’s agrobots, some autonomous vehicles, and a couple of humanoids; 1x and Engineered Arts. (Although I gather that this year there were quite a few more Chinese manufactured humanoids.) The rest of the robots at CES are hopeful startups, or corporate PR robots.
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Safety is one of the most important blockers to mass adoption of humanoid robots, which are starting to achieve sufficient functionality to be useful in various environments, like Tesla’s deployment of Optimus in its factories, and Figure’s partnership with BMW!
Part of the story here is that there aren’t baseline or composite standards references that OSHA (The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which sets regulations for workplace safety) and its peers, as well as courtrooms, can use to gauge liability in failure cases.
We believe that pre-emption of preparedness for this sort of analysis and robustness of safety standards can ensure that humanoids reach the market faster than their predecessors, AMRs and commercial drones.
The development of functional safety standards for humanoid robots is undergoing a transformative phase, driven by advancements in robotics technology and a growing emphasis on human-robot collaboration.
Recent discussions within ASTM Subcommittee F45.06 on Legged Robot Systems have yielded promising progress, particularly in defining disturbance rejection testing methods for legged robots.
One notable outcome is WK86916: New Test Methods for Disturbance Rejection Testing of Legged Robots, which establishes a standardized approach to evaluating a legged robot’s ability to recover from external forces. The other common approach for evaluation, which hasn’t yet been standardized, is terrain perturbation, such as making the robot walk on rough terrain, on a tilted treadmill, or even on shifting platforms, as described in the paper “From the State of the Art of Assessment Metrics Toward Novel Concepts for Humanoid Robot Locomotion Benchmarking”.
Agility Robotics’ Digit serves as a compelling example of these capabilities, and leadership from industry experts such as Aaron Prather continues to push the boundaries, including through efforts within the IEEE RAS Humanoid Robotics Study Group.
Inevitably, kick test-proof stabilization is the key function that most legged robot producers are focused on innovating on, and many vendors like MAB Robotics offer IMUs and actuators that make it easy to implement these functions.
To prepare for certification in the future, the most important action to be taken right now is effective reliability data collection so that performance metrics are easily accessible when standards are published and common reports are expected by customers, extended beyond the traditional metrics dictated by ISO 10218-1 and 12100.
Metrics monitoring and risk assessment are key capabilities that Saphira AI can help you with! Contact us for more information!
For the most part, functional safety assessments for humanoid robots follow a well-trodden path shared with other human-cooperative robots.
Standards such as ISO 13849 (Safety of Machinery) provide a framework for evaluating hazards like pinching, crushing, shearing, cutting, entangling, and impacts.
The familiar methodologies align well with the risk assessments employed in industrial and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), such as those outlined in ANSI/RIA R15.06 and R15.08.
However, humanoid robots diverge in a crucial area: legged behavior.
Unlike wheeled robots, legged robots must address the critical hazard of falls.
Standards for AMRs, such as collision sensing and trajectory deviation rules (e.g., shutting off after a 15 cm deviation), provide inspiration but must be adapted to the unique dynamics of humanoids.
The challenge lies in ensuring stability and recovery in environments where traditional rules for navigation and safety are insufficient.
This gap is one of the most important reasons humanoids aren’t widely deployed in factories yet.
Despite this focus on legged behavior, the most important facet of safety to keep in mind is mitigation of the common hazards in the particular domain of tasks your robot is sold for: you, as the producer of a humanoid robot, must include a safety controller that handles inputs regarding possible stops, ideally from duplicated and more robust sensor inputs than standard processing, such as LiDAR or RADAR.
We at Saphira think this is an enormous area of upcoming work, where we’re leading the pack on making the traditional facets of functional safety engineering straightforward for humanoid development!
The landscape of functional safety for humanoid robots has significantly evolved thanks to innovations in sensing, processing, and communication technologies. Many of the challenges identified in early scoping papers, such as James H. Graham’s 2000 IEEE paper presented at the MIT Humanoids Conference, are now being addressed:
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Complex Sensor Redundancy
Safety-critical redundancy in sensors like LiDAR, previously expensive and niche, is now more accessible with solutions from Velodyne, Luminar, and safety-rated manufacturers like SICK. Advanced systems like 3Laws have emerged to integrate these commodity sensors into reliable safety architectures. There is a huge need for certified vision-based safety systems that are a key focus in industry now, on which we are actively collaborating with various robotics companies! -
High-Speed Processing for Safety
The demand for fractional-second response times and ultra-low probabilities of Type 1 errors is met by modern hardware. High-performance embedded platforms like the Nvidia IGX Orin and PLC-certified solutions like SICK’s safeVisionary2 enable rapid and accurate safety decisions, even for complex processing models. -
Wireless Safety Communication
Advances in high-speed wireless communication, such as those from FORT Robotics, have enabled safer and more responsive robot operations in dynamic environments. A major gap to be filled here: an open-source safety communication protocol that can widely be used! -
Human Presence Sensing
Technologies such as ultrasonic, capacitive, and radar-based sensing (e.g., Inxpect) are now encompassed under IEC 62998. IEC 62998-3, which was just published last year, has started to standardize sensor algorithms and AI applications for safety, a game-changing development for humanoid robot design. -
Perception for Rule-Based Control
Rapidly computed perception stacks that output simple binary safety thresholds—like “is a human present?”—are increasingly practical. This ensures compliance with safety requirements while leveraging modern AI and sensor technologies.
Functional safety for humanoid robots benefits from a growing body of standards for general-purpose service and industrial robots, including:
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UL 4600
A key framework for autonomous product safety that emphasizes system-level hazard assessment. Due to designs like Tesla’s utilization of a vehicle-style CAN bus and embedded hardware, humanoid robots are well set up to be analyzed like vehicles. Key takeaways from UL 4600, ISO 26262 and ISO 21448 should thus be applied, such as fail-safe mechanism validation, independence of safety systems, continuous monitoring of safety metrics like joint torques, limb trajectories, ground stability, and human proximity, and edge case and uncertainty handling, such as ensuring training over slippery surfaces, uneven terrain, and abrupt human interaction. -
IEC 61508
Focuses on functional safety of electrical and electronic systems, offering insights for humanoid sensor and control systems. -
BSI 8611
Provides ethical guidelines for robot safety in public spaces, which is critical for humanoid robots operating outside industrial environments.
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World Economic Forum Reports: Highlight governance and ethical considerations for humanoid robots.
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UNECE Standards: Work on intelligent systems intersects with humanoid robot safety, especially for mobility.
Robotics companies and component suppliers are critical to advancing safety:
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Boston Dynamics and Agility Robotics showcase real-world implementations of functional safety in humanoid robots.
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SICK, Velodyne, and Luminar provide cutting-edge safety sensors.
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Tesla participates in global conversations about humanoid robot governance, although adoption of proposals like China’s Guidelines for Humanoid Robot Governance remains uncertain in the U.S.
As humanoid robots become more capable and integrated into human environments, functional safety remains the cornerstone of their development. The journey toward robust standards—grounded in innovations, international collaboration, and regulatory rigor—is essential to ensuring that these robots operate safely and reliably. With ongoing efforts from organizations like ASTM, IEEE, and ISO, the future of humanoid robotics looks both promising and secure, with incredible baselines to build off of that we’ve previously covered, such as aerospace and industrial robotics. Contact us at Saphira AI to work with us to make your current products as safe as possible under both existing and upcoming frameworks!
Thank you to Zhaoyuan Gu from Georgia Tech for his assistance and review of this article!
Get ready for more robots – Business Insider
The next robot invasion – NYTimes
17 weird, wonderful and terrifying robots we saw at CES 2025 – Live Science
The best robots of CES 2025 – Gizmodo
Robots dethrone EVs as CES 2025 favorite – DigiTimes Asia
Autonomous vehicles are having a moment and other vibes from CES 2025 – TechCrunch
Kubota brings electric equipment, robots, and hydrogen to CES – electrek
Humanoid AI Robots Go Full Service at CES 2025 – AI Business
Elephant Robotics draws global spotlight at the CES 2025 with debut of AI bionic companion robot pets – Newswires
CES 2025: Chinese firms show leading AI-powered robots, EVs, smart glasses – South China Morning Post
There sure are a lot of robots at CES: Here’s why we’re not picking a favorite – CNET
The robots we saw at CES 2025: The good, the bad and the completely unhinged – Engadget
A robot designed to cool off your soup – Electronics 360
We interviewed Aria, a $175k almost human robot at CES 2025 – CNET
Coming back to CES after a decade-long break was a trip – The Verge
Exclusive: Startup pioneering tiny robots that can travel inside the brain gets $28 million in new venture funding – Fortune
Australia’s next robot farm wants to grow your burger garnish – Financial Review
Boston Dynamics settles patent suit with military robotics firm Ghost – TechCrunch
Chinese robotics firm UBTech aims to revolutionize Apple supplier Foxconn’s manufacturing – South China Morning Post
Embodied intelligence makes humanoids robots smarter – People’s Daily Online
Pushing boundaries of humanoid robots – Global Times
Tesla’s Robot Business is Closer Than You Think – Barrons
The Download: China’s marine ranches, and fast-learning robots – MIT Technology Review
Nvidia scientist praises Chinese humanoid robot, stoking interest – South China Morning Post
Robotic Lander Heads to Moon in Latest NASA Launch – IOT World Today
Moon rover-inspired robot could be a game-changer for Japan’s aging farmers – CNN
He worked on producing oxygen on Mars, now he builds cannabis robots: the fascinating story of Sorting Robotics – Benzinga
Entrepreneurs tap into AI -powered robot builders to revolutionize struggling industry: ‘A massive productivity increase’ – TCD
Cyngn raises $33m to grow autonomous forklift deployments – The Robot Report
Asimov’s Laws of Robotics Need an Update for AI – IEEE Spectrum
Robots and AI are working together to bring you better medicines, shampoo and more – NIST
Think Surgical announces its TMINI Miniature Robotics System procedure milestone – PR Newswire
Samsung registers trademark ‘Bot Fit’ for its wearable robot – Korea Herald
RoboSense and Coco Robotics partner on autonomous last-mile delivery robots – Parcel and Postal Technology International
Delivery robots hit UK Parliament as Starship Technologies urges regulatory innovation – Retail Technology Innovation Hub
Humanoids robots in manufacturing – Automation World
OpenAI has begun building out its robotics team – VentureBeat
Autonomous trucking’s triangle-shaped problem goes to court – FreightWaves
Wanted: humans to build robots for OpenAI and not everyone is thrilled – ZDNet
Robots as colleagues: why the future of work is collaborative, not competitive – TechRadar
Humanoids Summit Expands to London in May 2025 and Returns to Silicon Valley in December – BusinessWire
Join us for a thought-provoking conversation about technology and humanity with Silicon Valley Read’s featured authors Charlee Dyroff (Loneliness & Company), Dr. Fei-Fei Li (The Worlds I See: Curiosity, Exploration, and Discovery at the Dawn of AI), and Ray Nayler (The Mountain in the Sea) on January 30th.
Attendees are invited to come early to see two robot dogs and visit the Euphrat Museum of Art, for their special exhibit where artists will be showcased around the theme “Encoding Empathy”.
In addition to a special “Industry Day” on March 3, 2025, the HRI 2025 conference invites partners to meet with some of the largest organizations in Australia!
This year, the conference theme is “robots for a sustainable world”—we all face the pressing global challenge of achieving sustainability in every facet of our lives; and we want to ensure that robots are part of the solution, not part of the problem.
The HRI conference gathers researchers and practitioners from all over the world to discuss and explore the intersection of robotics and artificial intelligence with our human, social world.
If you commit to sponsorship before December 13th, 2024, your organization could be an HRI 2025 Platinum partner for a 25% discounted rate of ~USD$7,500 (~USD$10,000 value)! Discounted Gold (~USD$6,000), Silver (~USD$3,750), and Bronze (~USD$1,125) packages are also available. Space is limited and first-come-first-served for some partner perks, so confirm your sponsorship now to maximize your benefits!
Details about partner/sponsor packages and à la carte options can be found here: https://humanrobotinteraction.org/2025/partners
IF you are a “supported organization“, or small businesses (with fewer than 500 employees), businesses owned by women or socially or economically disadvantaged, nonprofits, and academic research groups, ask about the additional discounts.
Thanks and hope to have your organization represented at HRI 2025! 🙂
I can say that we launched International Humanoids Day on 12/12 and also that in 2025 the Silicon Valley / San Francisco Humanoids Summit will be back on Dec 11th and 12th 2025 AND in London on May 29th and 30th.
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