Ati Robotics Wins FCC National Security Clearance for Five Robots

The U.S. Department of War has granted India-founded Ati Robotics conditional national security clearance for five industrial robot platforms, exempting them from the FCC's Covered List and preserving their eligibility to sell in the American market.

The FCC published the approval Oct. 30 under the company's U.S. legal name, ATI Motors Inc. The clearance covers the Sherpa Mecha humanoid robot, the Sherpa 10K and Sherpa 3K autonomous tuggers, and the Sherpa FlexFork 1500 and 3000 autonomous forklifts.

Ati claims Sherpa Mecha is one of only two humanoid robots to receive this clearance — and the only one designed for factory operations. That distinction matters in a market where foreign-built robotics now face hard regulatory gates.

What does the clearance change for buyers?

Since July 28, 2026, foreign-produced advanced robotic devices fall under the FCC Covered List unless they pass a national security review, according to Ati. Listed equipment can't get the FCC authorization required for U.S. distribution. For plant operators, that turned procurement into a compliance question first and a capability question second.

Ati's sales leadership heard that concern directly. "This year, our U.S. customers kept asking a common question before payload or price: 'will this robot be cleared to ship and be serviced long term'?" said Siddharth Bhagra, Ati's vice president of sales. "For Mecha, the Sherpa 10K and FlexFork, this approval confirms this clarity. Our customers will continue to partner with Ati Robotics for their automation needs – with more confidence than ever."

The answer is now yes for five platforms. The clearance keeps them eligible for FCC equipment authorization, the prerequisite for shipping and servicing these machines in the U.S. long term.

The five cleared platforms

The approval spans Ati's core industrial lineup:

• Sherpa Mecha: a dual-arm mobile humanoid that navigates factory floors, retrieves bins and handles parts.
• Sherpa 10K and Sherpa 3K: autonomous tuggers for material transport, with the 10K rated to move loads up to 10,000 pounds — roughly five tons per pull.
• Sherpa FlexFork 1500 and 3000: autonomous forklifts built to move pallets and carts.

All five run on Ati Flow, the company's in-house software platform for coordinating material movement across industrial facilities. Ati also builds its own autonomous navigation and fleet management software, giving it deep control across the stack — a point the founder framed as central to the clearance outcome.

"Ati Robotics has always prioritized building the robots ground up and having deep control over the components," founder and CEO Saurabh Chandra said in the announcement. "We were already working on our plans to make these robots in the US and had taken a larger site in Michigan earlier this year. The FCC action simply reinforces our belief that autonomous robots are strategic technology and must be treated as such by enterprises."

Operational track record and U.S. footprint

Ati reported a 99% mission success rate across its robotic portfolio in daily production operations. Average deployment times run four weeks or less — fast by industrial automation standards, where integration projects often stretch across months.

The company maintains its U.S. headquarters in Madison Heights, Michigan, where it handles deployment support, maintenance services and spare parts. The larger Michigan site taken earlier this year anchors planned U.S. manufacturing of the robots.

For automation buyers weighing foreign-built platforms, the takeaway is straightforward: regulatory risk is now a live procurement variable, and Ati has just moved itself to the cleared side of the ledger — with domestic production plans that could further insulate its supply chain.