What is known about humanoid robots working safely next to people, who argues what, and the dates that will decide it, with a source for every fact.
Humanoids are moving from fenced pilots towards work next to people, and the safety rules are not ready. The basic problem is physical: a humanoid needs power to stay upright, so the oldest safety move in robotics, cutting the power, can make it fall (A3, 23 Apr 2026; IEEE study group, Sep 2025). The first international standard for such robots, ISO 25785-1, is a committee draft whose comment period closed on 8 July 2026 (ISO), and Fraunhofer IPA does not expect it before 2028 (Fraunhofer IPA, 27 May 2026); Jens Müller, a member of the ISO working group, names May 2028 as the planned date (Automationspraxis, 20 Feb 2026). Meanwhile Agility Robotics sells Digit 5 as built for "cooperatively safe work" near people, with more than $300 million in orders (Robotics 24/7, 15 Sep 2026).
How do you stop a robot that falls when you cut its power?
A3 states that for a dynamically stable robot the usual emergency stop response, removing all power, is "NOT the optimal response" because the falling robot becomes a new hazard (A3, 23 Apr 2026).
The IEEE Humanoid Study Group proposes a five-level ladder for stop and power-loss behaviour, from an immediate power cut (level 0) to a robot that always holds a pose in which a power-loss collapse falls away from people (level 4) (IEEE study group, Sep 2025).
Agility's answer in 2025 was a controlled stop: "The robot basically has a fixed amount of time to try to get itself into a safe state", for example by putting down the load and dropping to hands and knees (MIT Technology Review, 11 Jun 2025). Digit 5 (2026) can avoid, stop or sit down under an independent safety controller (Robotics 24/7, 15 Sep 2026).
Can a humanoid fall without hurting anyone?
The IEEE study group says bipeds are always "one mistake or unexpectedly large disturbance away" from a hazardous fall, that "100% guaranteed stability is not always possible", and that standards for fall response are needed; it proposes a fall recovery test and, as an example, a stance that makes a power-loss collapse fall away from a nearby person (IEEE study group, Sep 2025).
A3 lists mechanical joint brakes to "prevent a full collapse" as the last layer of protection (A3, 23 Apr 2026).
SafeFall cut peak contact forces by 68.3% in falls of a Unitree G1, but its goal is protecting the robot's hardware, not bystanders (arXiv 2511.18509).
How hard may a humanoid touch a person?
For power and force limiting, the IEEE group says it is "completely unknown" what contact limits apply to humanoids, because ISO/TS 15066 and ISO 10218:2025 are written for single manipulators (IEEE study group, Sep 2025).
Fraunhofer IPA measured collision forces above 500 N on a Unitree G1, well over the pain thresholds the safety standards allow (Fraunhofer IPA, 27 May 2026).
Agility's CTO Pras Velagapudi: a hit to the throat "even with a fraction of the force that it would need to carry a 50-pound tote" could seriously injure a person (MIT Technology Review, 11 Jun 2025).
Can learned control and learned perception be certified?
The IEEE group says balance produced by optimal control, model predictive control and learned policies makes risk "harder to understand", and that standards to validate such controllers do not yet exist (IEEE study group, Sep 2025).
Digit 5 detects people with "proprietary AI algorithms" and multiple sensors, with an independent safety controller choosing the response (Robotics 24/7, 15 Sep 2026).
In the EU, the Machinery Regulation's stricter conformity route covers safety components and machines with machine-learning behaviour that ensure safety functions (Jens Müller, Automatica interview, 6 Oct 2026); since the Digital Omnibus, AI requirements for AI-enabled machinery go through that Regulation rather than the AI Act directly (Mayer Brown, 30 Jul 2026).
Who is liable, and who will insure it?
The EU Product Liability Directive (2024/2853), which treats software as a product, applies to products placed on the market after 9 December 2026 (Reed Smith); Cyber Resilience Act reporting duties apply from 11 September 2026 and most other duties from 11 December 2027 (McCann FitzGerald).
In Italy, Inail says a workplace accident caused by a humanoid is fully covered like any occupational accident, and inspectors assess CE marking, risk assessment and training as for any machine (Il Sole 24 Ore, 23 May 2026).
In China, PICC, China Pacific and Ping An sell humanoid and robot cover, including third-party liability, by the day, week or month, helped by state measures and premium subsidies, while insurers say there is no public risk database to price it (China Daily, 7 Oct 2026; Yicai, 24 Nov 2025).
When will a humanoid safety standard exist, and who writes it?
ISO/CD 25785-1 (TC 299) covers industrial mobile robots with actively controlled stability, legged or wheeled, in workplaces where the public is excluded; it was approved as a project on 22 May 2025 and its committee draft comment period closed on 8 July 2026 (ISO).
The working group, ISO TC 299 WG12, has about 120 participants from 17 nations, including all well-known humanoid makers from Europe, the US and Asia; final publication is planned for May 2028, with a first public draft somewhat earlier, and in Europe EN harmonisation follows, which for the revised ISO 10218 (published spring 2025) has not yet happened (Jens Müller, Automationspraxis, 20 Feb 2026).
Federico Vicentini of Boston Dynamics is described as convenor (chair) of the ISO working group, ISO TC 299 WG 12 (MIT Technology Review, June 2025; SICK, December 2025; the ISO page names no convenor), with people from Agility involved; his aim: "We want to standardize the goal, not the way to get to the goal" (MIT Technology Review, 11 Jun 2025). Agility is a project leader for the US technical report ANSI/A3 TR R15.108 (Robotics 24/7, 15 Sep 2026).