Humanoid Robots Are Hitting People in Public. The Safety Standard Won't Arrive Until 2028.

Why Bipedal Robots Are a Different Safety Problem

Traditional industrial robots (governed by ISO 10218) are fixed-base arms bolted inside guarded cells with known kinematic envelopes. Humanoid robots break virtually every assumption behind those standards .

• Unpredictable reach and momentum. Unlike a fixed-arm robot whose workspace is precisely defined, a humanoid combines bipedal locomotion with anthropomorphic limbs, extending its reachable space dynamically and unpredictably. A high-velocity kick or swing can carry far more momentum than a caged industrial arm .
• Fall-and-crush hazard. Bipedal robots depend on dynamic stability — continuous active balancing. Any interruption in power, a joint malfunction, or a software glitch can cause the robot to fall . When a ~200 lb humanoid topples, it can crush a worker beneath it. This hazard category simply doesn't exist for bolted-down robots that remain stationary when powered down .
• No guaranteed "safe" stop. For a fixed industrial robot, an emergency stop just halts the arm. For a dynamically stable humanoid, cutting power may cause the robot to lose balance and fall — which can be more dangerous than letting it keep moving .
• Falling is an intrinsic, unsolved risk. Academic research confirms that "bipedal locomotion makes humanoid robots inherently prone to falls" and that "no existing approach fully averts loss of balance" . Even state-of-the-art protective control methods cannot guarantee stability .

The Standard That Doesn't Exist Yet

ISO 25785-1 is the first ISO standard specifically designed to address the unique hazards of humanoids and other dynamically stable robots. Its full title is "Robotics — Safety requirements for dynamically stable industrial mobile robots (legged, wheeled, or other forms of locomotion) — Part 1: Robots" . The standard deliberately avoids the word "humanoid," using the technical descriptor "industrial mobile robots with actively controlled stability" to focus on safety-relevant characteristics rather than appearance .

Until ISO 25785-1 is published, humanoid robots on factory floors are governed by a patchwork of existing standards — ISO 10218:2025 and ANSI/A3 R15.06-2025 — that were never designed for them . As one industry commentator put it, "a bipedal robot cannot be bolted to the floor. When power is cut, it falls — introducing a fall-risk hazard category entirely absent from traditional robot safety analysis" .

The Human Cost of the Gap

The Xinjiang incident involved a 70-pound Unitree G1 whose joints can each generate over 100 Nm of torque . The performance area lacked any physical safety barriers, allowing the audience to stand within striking distance . The boy's mother criticized the slow staff response after the kick .

The Cupertino incident was triggered by human error: an employee accidentally activated the robot's "crazy dance" mode, which is controlled via a phone app or remote . The robot struck a table, sending plates and chopsticks flying. Three staff members struggled to control it — one repeatedly trying to turn it off via an app — before physically restraining it with a strap .

Both incidents echo a pattern that safety experts have been warning about. In March 2025, Agility Robotics' Digit toppled over face-first onto concrete during a trade exhibition . McKinsey has noted that "further scaling of robotics depends on additional work on safety, particularly when AI models are deployed to control robots" . A Fraunhofer study found that more than 41% of industry participants still cite safety as the primary concern across all robot types .

The Bottom Line

The Xinjiang kick and Cupertino dance-off are early-warning signals that the regulatory framework is lagging years behind deployment. Humanoids introduce fall-and-crush hazards, unpredictable dynamic reach, and uncontrolled post-power-loss behavior that existing fixed-robot safety standards cannot address. The first dedicated standard, ISO 25785-1, was approved for development in May 2025 but will not be published until roughly mid-2028 — leaving a multi-year safety gap as humanoids begin entering factories and public spaces today.