No More Chinese Robots?

[Thomas Messerschmidt]

ABC News said today,

“The U.S. Federal Communications Commission is banning imports of new foreign-made humanoid robots and power inverters, citing national security risks“

But, ChatGPT says, 

“ The headline is slightly misleading:

• It applies to new device models seeking FCC authorization after July 28.
• Foreign-made models that had already received FCC approval can still be imported, sold and used.”

Thomas Messerschmidt

-  

Need something prototyped, built or coded? I’ve been building prototypes for companies for 15 years. I am now incorporating generative AI into products.

Contact me directly or through LinkedIn:   

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ai-robotics/

[Alan Timm]

So this is now a thing that's happening in the good ole' USA...

https://www.reuters.com/world/trump-administration-ban-new-chinese-robots-inverters-protecting-us-ai-buildout-2026-07-28/

https://apnews.com/article/china-us-humanoid-robots-ban-tech-c9f5e3c94d91d00eff3b61b141fab366

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out.

Alan

[Chris Albertson]

It is unimportant.  The current US administration will be gone in a few years, and all its policies reversed.   In the meantime, these robots do absolutely nothing useful, so not having them will not be disruptive.     Current products may still be imported, so there is no disruption.

So we have a temporary import embargo on future products that don’t exist yet.

[camp .]

> It is unimportant.

    I wouldn't be so dismissive. This is a development platform, not a consumer product yet. The customers aren't end users, they're roboticists.

    We had to have the Apple computer before programmers could create applications. It's the same thing here: the embodiment is the platform on which roboticists will develop the next generation of applications. If you can't get the embodiment, you can't train, you can't develop the apps - doing laundry, washing dishes, taking out the trash, and everything else people expect humanoid robots to do (Hey, you! Go get that thing! Put it over there! Bring it over here!).

    That said, I understand the security concerns, and hopefully, any restrictions are temporary. Still, they effectively put U.S. application development on hold. The biggest beneficiaries could be companies like Tesla and Hyundai Motor Company, which already have factories where they can deploy and train their robots.

- Camp

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[Chris Albertson]

On Jul 30, 2026, at 10:09 AM, camp . <ca...@camppeavy.com> wrote:

> It is unimportant.

    I wouldn't be so dismissive. This is a development platfor

The ban is only for future products so it does not effect anythiong we know of.  Also it is only temporary and will be reversed in a few years.

What these regulaors don’t know is that the mechanical parts of the robot are not a problem.  It is the software that is the issue and software even on existing product are changed frequently.  Software is distributed in ways that can’t be blocked, for example, I could have attached a .zip file to this email or simply update a file in GitHub.    But don’t worry non-hummiod robots are unexplicticly not covered and I imagine “robots kit” will find therir way to market.

In the mean time this the now my favorite robot-toy

[camp .]

> But don’t worry non-hummiod robots are unexplicticly not covered and I imagine “robots kit” will find therir way to market.

    The ban is not limited to humanoid robots.

Did robot vacuums get sucked into new robot ban?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2026/07/30/foreign-robot-ban-rules-roombas-vacuums/91104970007/

"The FCC's updated ban defines "advanced robotic devices" as a "mechanical mobile device" capable of "locomotion, obstacle avoidance, navigation or movement on the ground." These devices also operate at a distance from a human operator, weigh more than 4.4 pounds and either feature a sensor capable of perceiving its environment, component that offers Bluetooth, WiFi or cellular connectivity, or a software that controls the device's navigation, like firmware of a machine-learning model.

By these definitions, Roombas, and many at-home robotic cleaners, fall under the ban."

- Camp

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[Chris Albertson]

On Jul 30, 2026, at 11:54 AM, camp . <ca...@camppeavy.com> wrote:

    The ban is not limited to humanoid robots.

Oh, my info came from a different source.   Banning everything makes more sense.  But still, these things get corrected.   I can also see a workaround where the robots are shipped in a state of disassembly where some required labor hours are needed to convert a parts supply into a robot.  The dumb regulators will never understand that the software is shipped electronically.

I’m still working on this.  My first steps are to write white papers for design and the design decisions.  This is for my own use to ensure I think of all the parts, processes, interfaces, and software options.    I think this is a good way to learn; just watching some YouTube stuff never works. You have to give yourself a school assignment, like “write a paper that describes four ways to do X, select one and defend your solution.”    It is easy to blow this off thinking you know already.  But putting words on paper means “no hand waving, show me the numbers”.  It will be a good, long time before I even need to buy one motor.