Humanoid robot safety standards explained: ISO 25785-1, China’s system and what is missing

There is no published safety standard written specifically for humanoid robots, as of September 28, 2026. The first international one, ISO 25785-1 for “dynamically stable industrial mobile robots”, is a committee draft whose comment period closed on July 8, 2026. China published a humanoid standards framework on February 28, 2026, listing 52 initial standards across six areas, but it is a roadmap rather than a finished rulebook.

Why it matters: humanoids are already working on factory floors and, in China, being delivered to homes. Until a standard covers a robot that can fall over when it loses power, makers and buyers are certifying against rules written for fixed arms and wheeled carts.

Is there a safety standard for humanoid robots?

Not yet a finished one. Makers today certify humanoids against a patchwork of standards written for other machines: industrial arms, collaborative robots, service robots and wheeled mobile robots. The table sets out each one that bears on humanoids.

The core mismatch is the safe stop. Standards for fixed arms and wheeled robots treat cutting power as the safe state. ISO defines the robots covered by ISO 25785-1 as those that need continuous power to keep their balance, so for a legged humanoid, cutting power can mean a fall. That is the hazard the older standards were not written to handle.

Robot safety standards that apply to humanoids, status as of September 28, 2026:

Standard	Scope	Status	How it applies to humanoids
ISO 25785-1	Safety requirements for dynamically stable industrial mobile robots (legged, wheeled or other), Part 1: robots	Committee draft; registered May 8, 2026; comments closed July 8, 2026; not published	The first international standard aimed at balancing robots, including humanoids, in industrial sites with restricted public access
ANSI/A3 TR R15.108	Technical report on dynamically stable industrial mobile robots	Under development	US counterpart work; Agility says it contributes to both this and ISO 25785-1
ISO 10218-1:2025 and 10218-2:2025	Industrial robots, and industrial robot applications and cells	Published February 2025; replace the 2011 editions	Covers arm and cell hazards; written for robots that do not need to balance
ISO/TS 15066:2016	Collaborative robots	Published; marked for revision June 2025; to be superseded by ISO 15066-1	Guidance for robots working next to people; content partly moved into ISO 10218:2025
ISO 13482	Safety requirements for service robots (personal and professional use; excludes industrial and medical)	2014 edition in force; new edition at final-draft ballot from September 15, 2026	The closest fit for home and commercial humanoids; does not single out legged robots
ANSI/A3 R15.08-1, -2, -3	Industrial mobile robots: manufacturer (2020, reaffirmed 2026), integration (2023) and user responsibilities (2026)	Published	Written for mobile robots on horizontal surfaces; does not address legged balance
China Standard System (2026 Edition)	Framework for humanoid and embodied-AI standards in six areas	Released February 28, 2026; 52 initial standards listed	A national roadmap; individual standards still at various stages
IEEE humanoid study group report	Pathway for future humanoid standards: classification, stability, human-robot interaction	Published September 25, 2025	Not a standard; a gap analysis and work plan

What is ISO 25785-1?

ISO 25785-1 is the draft international safety standard for industrial robots that need continuous power to stay balanced, the category that includes legged humanoids. Its full title is “Robotics — Safety requirements for dynamically stable industrial mobile robots (legged, wheeled, or other forms of locomotion) — Part 1: Robots”. It is developed by ISO/TC 299, the robotics committee.

ISO’s own record gives the timeline. The project was approved on May 22, 2025. The committee draft was registered on May 8, 2026 and circulated for consultation on May 12. The comment period closed on July 8, 2026, which is stage 30.60 in ISO’s numbering. It has not reached the enquiry (DIS) stage, let alone publication.

The scope is narrow on purpose. It covers robots in industrial settings where public access is restricted. It excludes robots operated by humans, non-industrial uses, exoskeletons and several specialist categories. A Part 2, covering how these robots are integrated into applications, is planned separately. Home humanoids such as 1X’s NEO or UBTech’s U1 fall outside it.

Industry is already writing to the draft. Agility Robotics said on September 15, 2026 that it contributes to ISO 25785-1 and to ANSI/A3 TR R15.108, the US technical report under development for the same class of robot, and that Digit 5 will carry CE marking for the EU and UK.

What is in China’s humanoid standard system?

China’s “Humanoid Robots and Embodied Intelligence Standard System (2026 Edition)” is a national framework released at the standardisation committee’s annual conference in Beijing on February 28, 2026. According to SESEC, the EU’s standardisation liaison in China, it groups standards into six areas: foundational and common standards; brain-inspired intelligence and intelligent computing; limbs and components; complete systems and integration; applications; and safety and ethics. It lists 52 initial standards, and more than 120 research institutes, companies and users took part.

The standards named in SESEC’s summary go beyond mechanical safety. They include embodied large-model systems, data quality, trustworthiness and humanoid lifecycle management. Unitree chief executive Wang Xingxing told Xinhua that industry-wide standards are “absolutely essential” if humanoids are to work on long-sequence tasks.

The difference from the ISO route is sequencing. ISO is finishing one safety standard for one class of industrial robot. China has published the full map first and is filling it in, which gives its makers a domestic reference for everything from components to AI models while the international safety text is still in draft.

What do current standards miss?

Three gaps matter most, and none is covered by the table above.

• Falls and balance in public spaces. ISO 25785-1 is limited to restricted industrial sites. No finished standard addresses a balancing robot falling in a home, shop or theme park. The IEEE study group identified stability, including dynamic balance and fall response, as one of three areas needing new standards and estimated 18 to 36 months to complete them.
• AI behaviour. Standards test mechanical and functional safety, not whether a model driving the robot will refuse a harmful instruction. Robocurve’s RoboHarm benchmark found frontier models controlling real arms completed most dangerous tasks they were given.
• Cybersecurity. A compromised robot is a physical hazard. Researchers have published root exploits against Unitree’s G1, covered in our G1 Bluetooth vulnerability report, and VicOne has released attack scenarios for Isaac Sim. Security has driven policy faster than safety standards have: the US FCC cited it when it blocked new foreign humanoid imports on July 28, 2026.

Regulation will force part of the issue in Europe. Most of the EU Machinery Regulation, (EU) 2023/1230, applies from January 20, 2027. It places safety components with self-evolving, machine-learning behaviour on its high-risk list, which requires third-party conformity assessment. For humanoids sold in the EU, that deadline will arrive before ISO 25785-1 is likely to be published.