ISO 25785-1 (Safety Requirements for Industrial Mobile Robots with Actively Controlled Stability — Part 1: Robots)

A safety standard, still being drafted, specifically for humanoid, quadruped, and other industrial mobile robots that need active balancing just to stay upright.

ISO 25785-1 is being drafted by ISO/TC 299 Working Group 12, initiated in May 2025, with experts from Agility Robotics, Boston Dynamics, and the U.S. Association for Advancing Automation (A3) leading the effort. It targets ‘actively controlled stability’ industrial mobile robots — bipedal humanoids, quadrupeds, and self-balancing wheeled robots (possibly with arms) that would fall over if power or control were lost — restricted to industrial settings the public can't freely enter. Traditional robots, on encountering danger, simply cut motor torque (safe torque off) and stopping is itself safe; an actively balanced robot instead falls over the moment power is cut, so falling and the center of mass leaving the support base have to be treated as hazards in their own right. Part 1 covers the robot itself; Part 2, covering integrated applications, will be developed separately. As of the committee draft (ISO/CD) stage reached in May 2026, it had not yet been published as of September 2026.

ExampleA humanoid robot in a warehouse carrying a box detects a fault; if it simply cut joint torque the way a traditional arm would, it would fall over completely. Under this draft standard's approach, it should instead assess which way it's likely to fall and how hard the impact would be, and be designed to execute a controlled stop or crouch, with a possible fall zone marked out in advance.

Also called

ISO/CD 25785-1, Humanoid Robot Safety Standard, Actively Controlled Stability

Related

Humanoid Robot · Dynamic Stability · Safe Torque Off (STO) · Fall Mitigation and Fall Recovery · ISO 10218-1/-2:2025 Robotics — Safety Requirements · Quadruped Robot

Sources

ISO/CD 25785-1 Robotics — Safety requirements for dynamically stable industrial mobile robots — Part 1: Robots
Synapticon: ISO 25785-1: Safety Standard for Dynamically Stable Robots
Provael: ISO 25785-1 crosswalk（CD 于 2026-05-08 登记） (Chinese)

As of

2026-09