Humanoid Robots Legal in the US After the FCC Covered List Ban

The humanoid robots legal in the US after 28 July 2026 are the ones that already held an FCC equipment authorization on the day the rule landed. The Federal Communications Commission added foreign-produced advanced robotic devices to its Covered List, which blocks new authorizations. It does not cancel old ones. Unitree's G1, R1, H2, Go2 and A2 all cleared the FCC before the cut-off and remain legal to import, sell, own and use.

This page tracks the status of each major model against the FCC's own equipment authorization records, and is updated when the Covered List changes or the Department of War grants a Conditional Approval. Last checked 29 July 2026.

Which humanoid robots are legal in the US right now

The test is simple and public. If a model holds an FCC equipment authorization with a grant date before 28 July 2026, it is grandfathered. If it does not, and it is foreign-produced, it cannot get one until the Department of War clears it.

The table below shows what the FCC's Equipment Authorization System actually holds. The "Filed as" column is the FCC's own description of the device on the grant, which matters because manufacturers rarely file under the marketing name.

That table covers the models people ask about most. If yours is not in it, check it directly below: every robot in the RoboZaps database against the FCC equipment authorization register, searchable by model, maker, or the FCC ID printed on the machine itself.

Two cautions on reading this table. First, an absent record is not proof that no authorization exists, because manufacturers file under their legal entity rather than their brand. Unitree files as YuShu Technology Co., Ltd. under grantee code 2A5PE, which is why a search for “Unitree” in the FCC database returns nothing at all. Second, where the grant itself does not name the model, we matched it using the user manual filed with that same application: the Go1, Go2, B2 and G1 manuals are all hosted in the FCC’s own exhibit record, so every row above traces to an FCC document rather than to our guesswork. Where a row reads “No authorization found”, that is the limit of what the record shows and not a finding that the robot is barred: whether a device is caught by the rule turns on the domestic-end-product test described below, which no public source lets anyone run from the outside.

The H1 has no separate authorization visible under the Unitree grantee code. If you are buying one, read the FCC ID from the label on the actual unit and check it against the FCC database using the method further down this page.

What the FCC actually banned on 28 July 2026

The FCC's Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau released DA 26-786, adding two new categories to the Covered List maintained under the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act. The robotics entry reads, in full: "Foreign-produced advanced robotic devices, except advanced robotic devices which have been granted a Conditional Approval by DoW."

Under section 2.903(a) of the Commission's rules, equipment on the Covered List is barred from receiving an equipment authorization, and under section 2.911 every applicant must certify that its equipment is not covered. Without an authorization a radio device cannot lawfully be marketed or imported. That is the whole mechanism. There is no separate import ban, no customs seizure list and no penalty aimed at owners.

The notice names no company and no country. The trigger was a National Security Determination sent to the FCC on 27 July 2026 by a White House-convened interagency body, which cited supply chain concentration and a run of real cybersecurity failures, including the September 2025 exploit that allowed takeover of fleets of Unitree robots. We covered the announcement and the Unitree fallout in our report on the FCC robot ban.

The legal definition of an advanced robotic device

The scope sits in Appendix C of the notice, as a scanned image, which is why most coverage has paraphrased it. An advanced robotic device is a mechanical mobile device, including autonomous mobile robots, humanoid robots and quadrupeds, that meets all of the following:

• is capable of locomotion, obstacle avoidance, navigation or movement on the ground;
• operates at a distance from a human operator based on commands or sensor data;
• has a combined weight, including any ground station or docking station, over 4.4 lb;
• contains a sensor capable of perceiving its environment, a network connection of at least 200 kbps in either direction, and software that controls autonomous navigation, movement perception, data collection or remote command-and-control.

The determination then excludes connected road vehicles, rail-only vehicles, uncrewed aircraft, unmanned underwater vehicles, medical devices under section 513 of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act including surgical robots, limb prostheses and mobility aids such as wheelchairs, and fixed industrial arms of every kind: articulating, delta, gantry and SCARA.

The weight threshold matters more than it looks. A small desktop or toy robot under 4.4 lb including its dock falls outside the rule entirely.

What "foreign-produced" actually means

This is the part most coverage has skipped, and it is where the rule differs from a straightforward China ban. The determination defines foreign-produced as "any article that would not qualify as a domestic end product, as that term is defined in 48 CFR 25.101(a)."

That is the Buy American test. It turns on where the article was manufactured and on the cost share of its components, not on where the brand is headquartered or where the company was founded. A robot assembled in the United States from a majority of foreign components can fail the test. A robot from a foreign brand that clears the component threshold can pass it. Nobody outside the agencies has published a list of which specific models fall on which side, and any page that claims otherwise is guessing.

For that reason the US-produced rows in the table above are marked as outside the rule on the basis of US manufacturing, not as a certified compliance determination.

Robot dogs and quadrupeds face the same rule

The determination names quadrupeds explicitly, and the supporting evidence leans on quadruped incidents, including the April 2025 disclosure of a pre-installed backdoor on foreign-produced robotic quadrupeds that exposed the camera feed and allowed full takeover.

In practice the effect on the robot dog market is narrower than the headlines suggest, because the popular Chinese quadrupeds already hold authorizations. Unitree's Go2 cleared in May 2024 and the A2 cleared in June 2026. Newer entrants without a US filing are the ones shut out. Our guide to the best robot dogs covers the models still available.

Conditional Approvals are the only way back in

A producer of covered devices can apply for a Conditional Approval. For robots, the Department of War alone evaluates submissions, using the information requested in the Advanced Robotic Devices Guidance Document. If the Department transmits a specific determination to the FCC that a device or class of devices does not pose the identified risks, that device drops off the Covered List and can be authorized.

The determination frames this as a transition mechanism, saying producers are encouraged to apply so they can continue to receive FCC authorization "while they work to onshore manufacturing."

Conditional Approvals granted for advanced robotic devices as of 29 July 2026: none.

The drone precedent shows what to expect. Uncrewed aircraft systems went onto the Covered List in December 2025, and that single entry has picked up four carve-outs since: a Blue UAS cleared-list exemption, a Buy American exemption added in January 2026, a Conditional Approvals clause in March 2026 and a toy drone exemption in June 2026. The robotics entry will almost certainly accumulate the same kind of exceptions, which is why this page is maintained rather than published once.

If you already own one

Nothing changes for you. Previously authorized devices remain legal to import, market, sell and use. The FCC did not revoke a single existing authorization, although it kept the power to revisit them later.

Updates also keep flowing. A companion order released the same day, DA 26-789, waives the rules that would otherwise block permissive changes to covered equipment. In the Commission's words, all advanced robotic devices authorized for use in the United States "may continue to receive software and firmware updates that mitigate harm to U.S. consumers at least until January 1, 2029," including security patches and operating-system compatibility fixes.

The one real risk for buyers is the second-hand and grey import market. A unit that was never authorized in the first place does not become legal because it is already inside the country.

How to check any robot's FCC status yourself

You do not have to take our word for any row in that table. The FCC's Equipment Authorization System is public.

1. Find the FCC ID on the robot's label, in its manual, or in the compliance section of the product page. It looks like 2A5PE-YUSHU012.
2. Open the FCC OET Authorization Search.
3. Split the ID: the first three to five characters are the grantee code, the rest is the product code. Enter them in the two matching fields and search.
4. Open the grant document. Check the Date of Grant. Before 28 July 2026 means the model is grandfathered.
5. Read the Notes field on the grant. That is the FCC's own description of the device, and it is the only reliable way to tell which product an ID belongs to.

If the seller cannot give you an FCC ID, treat that as the answer.

If you are checking because you are about to buy, we do this as a paid product. The Robot Sourcing Brief is a fixed-fee shortlist for your task: three platforms with sources, authorization status per model with grant references, and what a pilot actually costs. It is US$1,950, delivered in five business days, and the fee is credited in full against any procurement through RoboZaps.

Changelog

• 29 July 2026 — Page published. Covered List entry, scope definition and per-model authorization status verified against DA 26-786, DA 26-789 and the FCC Equipment Authorization System. Unitree Go1, Go2, B2 and G1 rows matched to their FCC-filed user manuals. Status wording for US-made models changed to reflect that no agency has published a model-by-model classification. No Conditional Approvals granted for advanced robotic devices at this date. Updated 30 July 2026: two status cells changed from “Blocked unless cleared” to “No authorization found” after a full sweep of all 81 manufacturers in the RoboZaps database, because the stronger wording asserted more than the public record supports. Updated 30 July 2026: added an interactive checker covering every robot in the database, 179 in total, after a full sweep of the FCC register across all 81 manufacturers.

Compare on RoboZaps: Walker S2, Unitree H2, Unitree R1, Figure 03, Xpeng Iron and Apptronik Apollo. Full specifications and a quote route for each, alongside every humanoid robot we carry.