/Tech9h ago

Bipartisan Bill Restricts Chinese Humanoid Robots, Threatening US Academic Research

1713033124.7K

Original post

Serious blow to american academic robotics research, outside of big corporate labs. The prime operating mechanism is the FCC covered list (same as Huawei routers and telecom gear) which means universities can no longer even operate their existing fleets.

Hopefully a domestic developer market will arise to fill the gap, but i worry about the effect on research, at a time when I think american academic research is already in danger of falling behind.

Losing YAM arms, xArm, and unitree and agibot humanoids will hurt. Same for sharpawave and wuji hands.

4:59 PM · Jun 7, 2026 · 17.6K Views

/Tech9h ago

Bipartisan Bill Restricts Chinese Humanoid Robots, Threatening US Academic Research

1713033124.7K

#1838

Original post

Chris Paxton@chris_j_paxton#1838inTech

Hopefully a domestic developer market will arise to fill the gap, but i worry about the effect on research, at a time when I think american academic research is already in danger of falling behind.

Losing YAM arms, xArm, and unitree and agibot humanoids will hurt. Same for sharpawave and wuji hands.

4:59 PM · Jun 7, 2026 · 17.6K Views

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Many users dismissed the bipartisan bill restricting Chinese humanoid robots as unnecessary protectionism, arguing the US should invest in its own supply chains instead of fearing competition.

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Chris Paxton@chris_j_paxton

To be clear i am an american roboticist who would *definitely* benefit financially from it (follow the thread for proof), I am objecting because I think it's bad for the country

Chris Paxton@chris_j_paxton

Hopefully a domestic developer market will arise to fill the gap, but i worry about the effect on research, at a time when I think american academic research is already in danger of falling behind.

Losing YAM arms, xArm, and unitree and agibot humanoids will hurt. Same for sharpawave and wuji hands.

6h3.1K224

REPLIES3

Chris Paxton@chris_j_paxton

I dont even feel this is necessary. We have a lot of robotics talent. The same bad anti-competitive patterns are appearing though, where we are afraid of any sort of competition.

Chris Paxton@chris_j_paxton

The most depressing thing when you talk to a lot of roboticists is how many of them just don't think the US can compete with china. Speedrunning national irrelevance, just like with our auto industry

9h2.6K120

Chris Paxton@chris_j_paxton

Instead of a ban I really feel like we should be investing more in the supply chain. Chinese companies never have qualms using American stuff (count all the robots using quest 3s and Intel realsense and nvidia, its all of them) so why should we care about the reverse

Chris Paxton@chris_j_paxton

I dont even feel this is necessary. We have a lot of robotics talent. The same bad anti-competitive patterns are appearing though, where we are afraid of any sort of competition.

9h1.2K111

leepy@leepy_cat

@chris_j_paxton lowkey robotis coded

9h151