Bengaluru built Ati Robotics clears US security review for its factory humanoid and four other robots

Ati Robotics, the Bengaluru founded maker of autonomous factory robots formerly called Ati Motors, has received a conditional exemption from the US Federal Communications Commission's Covered List for five of its machines. The FCC published the approval on 30 October 2026 in notice DA 26-1181 under the company's US legal name, ATI Motors, Inc., covering the Sherpa Mecha humanoid, the Sherpa 10K and Sherpa 3K tuggers and the FlexFork 1500 and 3000 autonomous forklifts, according to the company, The AI Insider, The Robot Daily and Backplane Robotics' tracker of FCC notices.

The clearance matters because of a rule that took effect on 28 July 2026, when the FCC added foreign produced advanced robotic devices to the Covered List unless they win a conditional approval after a US Department of War review. Equipment on the list cannot get new FCC equipment authorisations, which are needed to sell it in the US. Backplane's reading of the notice says Ati's exemption depends on keeping to the onshoring plan in its application and on continued vetting of its products. The Robot Daily reports that Sherpa Mecha is one of only two humanoids cleared so far, and the only one built for factory work.

Founder and CEO Saurabh Chandra started the company in 2017 to build motors for self driving cars before it turned to making its own robots, WIRED reported in August. Today its Sherpa tuggers and pallet movers haul materials between factory lines, docks and warehouses, with the 10K model rated for 10,000 lb. The company says its robots have completed more than 2 million autonomous missions across 70 plus factories. Chandra told WIRED the 10K tugger is essentially free of Chinese parts and that the company makes its own actuators in Bengaluru, while Business Standard reported the company has raised $37 million, mostly from Silicon Valley investors.

All of Ati's robots are still built in Bengaluru, but the company has opened a North American headquarters in Madison Heights, Michigan, near Detroit's carmakers, and says it eventually wants to assemble robots there, Hoodline reported citing Crain's Detroit Business. Separately, The Times of India reported in October that a three year research partnership with IIIT Hyderabad has produced a robot that navigates a factory floor using camera images and a 3D AI model instead of LiDAR maps.

Why it matters: the US crackdown on Chinese robots has opened a door for manufacturers that can prove where their hardware and software come from. An Indian engineered humanoid making it through that review is an early sign that India's robotics supply chain can compete for a market that is suddenly closed to its biggest rival.