The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has banned all foreign-manufactured mobile robots from the country, a move that extends to consumer devices including robot vacuums2.
On Tuesday, the FCC announced it had added "advanced robotic devices" made outside the U.S. to its Covered List, which documents communications equipment and services the U.S. government believes pose an "unacceptable risk" to national security. Products on the Covered List are prohibited from receiving FCC equipment authorization, which is mandatory for most electronic devices imported or sold in the country.
The ban means foreign-manufactured advanced robotic devices cannot be imported or sold in the U.S.. The FCC's announcement specifically mentioned limbed robots such as humanoids and quadrupeds, which would bar products such as XPENG's humanoid IRON robot and Unitree's Go2 Pro Robot Dog from the U.S. market.
Robot vacuums also fall within the ban's scope. Consumers in the U.S. will no longer be able to purchase new robot vacuums from brands including Roborock, Ecovacs, Dreame, and Samsung.
The FCC cited a National Security Determination that defines "advanced robotic devices" as mechanical mobile devices — including autonomous mobile robots, humanoid robots, and quadrupeds — capable of locomotion, obstacle avoidance, navigation, or movement on the ground. The breadth of that definition is what pulls robot vacuums into the restriction alongside more conspicuously security-relevant hardware such as humanoids.
The robot ban follows a similar FCC action against foreign-made routers.
ANALYSIS The scope of the definition — keyed to locomotion, obstacle avoidance, and navigation rather than to a specific product category — means the ban could reach a wide range of consumer and commercial robotic hardware beyond the humanoids and quadrupeds the FCC highlighted. For AI robotics companies based outside the U.S., particularly Chinese firms such as XPENG and Unitree, the ruling effectively closes the U.S. market for their flagship hardware products. The inclusion of Samsung-branded robot vacuums signals that the restriction is country-of-manufacture based, not limited to Chinese-headquartered companies.