Advancing American Robotics and Physical AI

Section 1. Purpose and Policy.

American leadership in artificial intelligence must translate into the ability to inspect critical assets, manufacture energy equipment, and conduct scientific experiments more safely, reliably, and economically. That requires systems that perform useful work under operating conditions, technicians who can maintain them, and suppliers that can support continued operation.

It is the policy of the United States to accelerate the development and adoption of robotics and physical AI that strengthen domestic production, reduce hazardous worker exposure, and improve the productivity of American industry. Federal efforts shall emphasize measurable task performance, competitive procurement, reproducible evaluation, and commercially sustainable deployment. Agencies shall compare proposed robotic systems with conventional automation and existing work methods, and shall not favor a particular robot form or control architecture without a task-specific justification.

For purposes of this order, “physical AI” means artificial intelligence integrated with sensors, control systems, and actuators to perform physical tasks. A “mission demonstration” means a bounded trial with a named host, defined operating conditions, predetermined acceptance criteria, and an identified official responsible for deciding whether the system should enter continued service.

Sec. 2. Coordination and Public Input.

(a) The Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) shall coordinate implementation of this order with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the heads of participating executive departments and agencies. Within 30 days, the Secretaries of Energy, Commerce, Labor, Agriculture, and the Treasury, the Administrator of the Small Business Administration (SBA), and the Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) shall each designate a senior official responsible for implementation.

(b) Within 30 days, the Secretary of Energy, in consultation with the Secretary of Commerce and the OSTP Director, shall issue a request for information with a response period of at least 60 days. The request shall seek evidence concerning hazardous inspection, energy-equipment production, and laboratory sample handling, including failed or discontinued deployments. It shall request task-level baselines, accepted output, operating hours, human interventions, full deployment costs, workforce effects, and the performance or cost threshold required for a repeat purchase.

(c) The request shall solicit input from operators, small manufacturers, workers and their representatives, developers, integrators, laboratories, educational institutions, lenders, and insurers. It shall distinguish public responses from any agency-approved process for protected submissions and shall comply with applicable information-collection requirements. No respondent shall be asked to disclose classified information, personal records, or facility vulnerabilities in a public filing.

(d) Within 90 days after the response period closes, the Secretary of Energy shall publish a synthesis identifying candidate tasks, evidence gaps, and regulatory referrals. Participation shall not create a preference in a subsequent award or procurement.

Sec. 3. Mission Demonstrations.

(a) Within 180 days, the Secretaries of Energy and Commerce shall approve an initial demonstration plan targeting two sites for each of the following missions, for a total of six sites:

(i) inspection of tanks, pipes, vessels, or comparable assets where robotic access could reduce hazardous exposure while meeting required defect-detection and coverage standards;

(ii) welding, finishing, machine tending, or related production of a defined family of energy-equipment parts, measured by accepted output, changeover time, rework, and total cost; and

(iii) preparation or transfer of laboratory samples, measured by traceability, contamination, human intervention, and reproducible experimental results.

(b) The Secretary of Energy shall lead inspection and laboratory demonstrations within the Department's mission, using existing facilities where practicable. The Secretary of Commerce, acting through the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and its Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), shall lead manufacturing assistance within applicable program authority. Non-Federal hosts shall participate voluntarily through lawful agreements or competitively awarded assistance. Selection shall use published criteria. If fewer than six sites meet those criteria within available resources, the Secretaries shall identify the unfilled places and reasons in the plan.

(c) Before funds are obligated for a demonstration, the responsible agency shall document the applicable authority, available funding, host contribution, independent evaluation arrangements, and procurement or assistance mechanism. Before field operation, the host shall approve a trial charter stating the baseline, operating envelope, accepted-output definition, maximum cost, minimum performance, intervention limits, safety stop conditions, and recovery procedure. Laboratory trials shall begin with nonhazardous surrogate materials where practicable.

(d) Each demonstration shall include at least 90 days of observation following commissioning, unless terminated earlier for safety or failure to meet an agreed milestone. Records shall separate commissioning from routine operation and autonomous operation from remote or on-site assistance. Costs shall include tooling, integration, qualification, training, service, downtime, consumables, and removal.

(e) Within 18 months, the responsible agency shall document a decision to proceed toward continued service, conduct a defined retest, or discontinue each demonstration. Within 24 months, the Secretaries shall report second-site results and follow-on purchases, where made. Expansion beyond the initial sites shall require independent replication, site-specific safety approval, and an identified funding source. A successful demonstration shall not establish entitlement to an award or an exemption from competition requirements.

Sec. 4. Measurement, Research, and Data.

(a) Within 90 days, the Secretary of Commerce, acting through NIST and in consultation with the Secretary of Energy and the NSF Director, shall publish draft task-evaluation protocols for the three missions in section 3. The protocols shall cover seeded inspection defects and robot retrieval; unfamiliar part variants and changed fixtures; and sample-labeling faults and contamination controls. They shall define attempts, accepted results, interventions, downtime, recovery, and measurement uncertainty.

(b) Within 180 days, NIST shall coordinate independent execution of each selected protocol at two testing facilities and document reproducibility and unresolved measurement differences. A protocol that cannot produce comparable results shall be revised before serving as a demonstration acceptance test. These protocols shall not constitute product certification or replace legally required safety approvals.

(c) Within 180 days, the Secretary of Energy and the NSF Director shall identify research priorities arising from the demonstrations, including contact manipulation, sensing, environmental tolerance, and recovery from failure. Each proposed research work package shall identify one measured deficiency, a time-bound target, an independent test, a potential user, and the reason existing commercial incentives are insufficient. Agencies shall use existing facilities and eligible programs where practicable and identify any need for additional authority or appropriations.

(d) Within 270 days, the NSF Director, in consultation with NIST and the Secretary of Energy, shall establish a process under existing authorities for releasing or providing controlled access to reusable task and failure data. The process shall address calibration, provenance, worker-recording consent, intellectual property, permitted reuse, and security. Evaluation data withheld from training shall remain separate. Continued support for a dataset shall depend on demonstrated outside use, rather than recording volume alone.

Sec. 5. Industrial Capacity and Supply Security.

(a) Within 180 days, the Secretary of Commerce, in consultation with the Secretary of Energy, shall prepare an initial assessment of components whose loss would interrupt the selected missions. The assessment shall distinguish reducers, motors, magnets, drives, sensors, power electronics, and compute; identify manufacturing origin, ownership, qualified alternatives, lead times, demand, and spare inventories; and assess the consequences of a 90-day supply or service interruption. Unknown origin shall be recorded as unknown.

(b) Within 12 months, the Secretary of Commerce shall recommend measures for each material exposure, comparing additional inventory, second-source qualification, redesign, and new production capacity. Recommendations for Federal support of new capacity shall be supported by verified demand, qualification constraints, and evidence that available supply cannot meet the requirement. Public findings shall protect confidential commercial information.

(c) The Secretary of Commerce, in consultation with the Secretary of State, shall identify opportunities for joint testing and component qualification with willing allied partners. Reviews shall address beneficial ownership, manufacturing and component origin, remote access, and relevant connections to China, Russia, or North Korea. Any procurement restriction or exclusion shall rest on applicable law or a documented, lawful program requirement; an allied headquarters address alone shall not establish eligibility.

(d) Within 270 days, the Secretary of Commerce, acting through MEP, shall publish model installed-cost and service schedules for small manufacturers. These schedules shall identify local maintenance, spare parts, response times, software support, data handover, and recovery responsibilities. Manufacturing demonstrations shall test whether local personnel can safely recover from a fault without the vendor's development team on site.

Sec. 6. Financing and Workforce Readiness.

(a) Within 180 days, the SBA Administrator and the Secretaries of Agriculture and the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of Commerce, shall review how equipment, integration, qualification, training, and maintenance costs are treated under relevant existing financing programs. Each shall publish guidance within the official's authority identifying eligible uses, material limitations, and appropriate applicant pathways. This review shall not expand statutory eligibility, direct a lender to approve a loan, or commit State-administered funds.

(b) The Secretary of Commerce shall ensure that participating MEP centers distinguish unproven task economics from financing gaps. Assessments shall compare commercial purchase, further qualification, research, and continued use of the existing method. Financing analyses shall include lower-utilization and higher-recovery-cost scenarios. Recommendations for new Federal credit support shall identify evidence of an unmet financing need among technically qualified buyers.

(c) Within 180 days, the Secretary of Labor, in consultation with the Secretaries of Energy and Commerce, shall develop model training competencies for participating operators, technicians, and remote supervisors. The Secretary shall invite State workforce agencies, employers, worker representatives, and colleges to align eligible existing programs with those competencies.

(d) Agency demonstration agreements shall, to the extent permitted by law, provide for paid training, shift coverage, safe isolation, guarding, fault recovery, and software rollback. Site personnel shall demonstrate required skills before routine operation. Evaluation shall distinguish reassignment, vacancies, overtime changes, layoffs, contractors, and remote operators, and shall include wages and retention six months after training. Expansion shall not proceed without adequate safety and service staffing.

Sec. 7. Safety, Security, and Regulatory Barriers.

(a) Within 180 days, the Secretary of Labor, in consultation with the Secretaries of Energy and Commerce, shall publish examples of site acceptance documentation for the three missions. The examples shall address applicable requirements, hazard assessment, operating limits, human proximity, emergency stops, recovery, software-version records, retesting after material changes, and the official authorized to approve operation. Applicable jurisdiction and employer responsibilities shall remain unchanged.

(b) Within 180 days, the OSTP Director shall coordinate a register of specific Federal regulatory barriers identified through section 2. The register shall identify the rule or requirement, responsible agency, requested remedy, evidence needed, and target response date. Relevant agency heads, including the Secretaries of Labor and Transportation, shall evaluate referred matters within their jurisdictions and identify available interpretations, waiver procedures, or rulemaking steps. Matters within an independent agency's jurisdiction shall be referred for that agency's consideration.

(c) No referral or demonstration designation shall itself waive a requirement, preempt State law, or authorize operation outside an approved operating envelope. Agencies shall distinguish legal requirements from customer, insurer, and contractual conditions and shall follow applicable procedures for any proposed regulatory change.

(d) Before a demonstration purchase or deployment, the responsible agency shall document applicable sourcing restrictions, supported software life, remote-access privileges, authenticated update procedures, event logging, loss-of-connection behavior, and tested rollback. Material changes shall trigger review. Sensitive operational information shall be protected under applicable law.

Sec. 8. Accountability and Budget.

(a) Within 90 days, each participating agency head shall submit to the OSTP and OMB Directors an implementation schedule identifying responsible officials, existing authority, estimated costs, available resources, and any additional legislative or budgetary requirements. Unfunded activities shall be identified explicitly. Agencies shall incorporate additional resource requests into the established budget process.

(b) At 12 and 24 months, the OSTP Director shall submit to the President a consolidated implementation report and publish an appropriate public summary. Reports shall include sites screened, selected, withdrawn, failed, and proceeding to purchase; accepted output; operating and downtime hours; interventions per 100 operating hours; full cost per accepted unit; worker exposure and staffing changes; and unresolved supply or regulatory constraints.

(c) Reports shall distinguish measured results from estimates and shall describe uncertainty, independent verification, and limits on generalization. Selected demonstration sites shall not be represented as a national adoption sample. If a deadline cannot be met, the responsible agency head shall notify the OSTP and OMB Directors of the reason, interim action, and revised schedule.

Sec. 9. General Provisions.

(a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or

(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

(d) No provision of this order shall be construed to establish a new loan guarantee, require a non-Federal entity to participate, or authorize expenditures beyond available appropriations.

[Presidential signature]
THE WHITE HOUSE,
[Date of signing]