Lesson 8 · 18 min
A policy that succeeds in the simulator is still far from a production line. In between are ROS 2, which connects the model to the motors, the safety layers, which no VLA can do without, and the real state of the market, which is less ready than the headlines make it look.
Start the lesson
Goal: connect a VLA to ROS 2, build the safety checklist, and map out your next step.
The policy is one piece. Safety stays outside it. Click each block.
The VLA decides; the controller executes; safety holds even when the VLA gets it wrong.
Standards and market come with their source: much of it appeared only in a secondary source.
According to the ISO page seen in a search result, ISO 10218-1 and 10218-2:2025 were published in Feb 2025 and remain in two parts: -1 for the robot and -2 for the application and the cell. According to secondary sources, -2 absorbed the content of ISO/TS 15066 on collaborative robots.
According to Drives & Controls magazine (Oct 18, 2026), ISO 25785-1, for humanoids and other robots with active balance, is still a draft (CD): no manufacturer can claim certification to it.
The European Commission portal (Aug 2026) reports that the Digital Omnibus postponed the AI Act's high-risk rules and removed machinery from the AI Act's own list: the AI requirements for machinery move to the Machinery Regulation.
According to legal analyses (Freshfields, Gibson Dunn), the new deadlines are Dec 2, 2027 (Annex III) and Aug 2, 2028 (Annex I).
According to CNBC, Unitree went public in Shanghai at a valuation of about US$ 9 bn (Aug 2026). Also reported were Skild AI's round at more than US$ 14 bn (Jan 2026), Apptronik's (US$ 520 mn, Feb 2026), Agility's merger with a SPAC (Jun 2026), and AgiBot's IPO filing in Hong Kong (Jul 2026).
Physical Intelligence's ~US$ 1 bn round was reported by Bloomberg, with no official announcement. Bank market projections have different scopes (2035 versus 2050, hardware only versus services) and are not comparable with each other.
According to press reports, the production Atlas was launched at CES 2026 with the year's batch already spoken for; 1X's NEO had no confirmed customer delivery as of Jul/2026; and Tesla's Optimus V3 had not been shown as of Aug/2026. Most deployments are still pilots or narrow tasks.
Compute: according to CNX Software, the Jetson AGX Thor kit went from US$ 3,499 to US$ 5,499 and the Orin Nano Super from US$ 249 to US$ 399 (Jul/2026).
Copy it and fill it in for a case of your own. Every line without an answer is a reason not to turn the robot on.
# Checklist: <task> at <place> ## Model - [ ] Do the weights' license allow this use? (which: ______) - [ ] Evaluated in simulation: success rate ____ % over ____ episodes - [ ] Evaluated on the real robot: ____ % over ____ attempts - [ ] Most common failure noted: ______ ## Integration - [ ] ROS 2 distribution and end-of-support date: ______ - [ ] Policy node publishes to the controller (not straight to the motor) - [ ] Inference time measured: ____ ms; chunk covers ____ ms ## Safety (outside the model) - [ ] Emergency stop tested - [ ] Position, speed, and force limits in the controller - [ ] Work zone / protection (light curtain, fence, marked area) - [ ] Applicable standard checked with whoever certifies (ISO 10218-1/-2:2025 or local) - [ ] What happens if the camera fails or the model hangs: ______ ## People - [ ] Who can take over control and how: ______ - [ ] Log of every intervention (it becomes correction data)
Numbers made up to show how to fill it in. Yours come from lessons 2, 5, and 6.
Pick a real case, even a small one (a home bench, a lab, a customer's line).
Copy the checklist and fill it in with the numbers from your practice sessions (lessons 2, 5, and 6) and the model you chose in lesson 3.
Done when: every line has an answer or is marked "missing", and the Safety section does not depend on the model.
Pick two market claims from this lesson and mark each one as a fact with a primary source, news, or a projection.
Done when: both are marked and you can say why the PI funding round is only news.
Use the generator below to build the plan with dates and download the .md.
Done when: you have the plano.md with a start date and an end date, and the first step is marked on your calendar.
The explanation appears after your answer.
Question 1 of 4
Where should the emergency stop live?skill
Question 2 of 4
Which ROS 2 distribution is the newest with long-term support as of Oct/2026?
Question 3 of 4
Is there a specific ISO standard for VLAs as of Oct/2026?
Question 4 of 4
Why not compare one bank's projection for 2035 with another's for 2050?
Pick an option. The explanation appears after your attempt.
The four practical steps and what each one delivers. Click an exercise to see its "done when".
Concepts and license
3 exercises
A model chosen by license, size, and access.
See the lessonData and LeRobot
3 exercises
An open dataset and a checkpoint of your own in outputs/.
See the lessonROS 2 and safety
3 exercises
The checklist filled in for a case of your own.
See the lessonStart with lessons 1 to 3: separating the model families, understanding the action chunk, and reading model cards. Without this, the rest turns into copying commands.
Requires step 1. Lessons 4 and 5: open PushT, train ACT, and read the loss. Runs on CPU.
Requires the checkpoint from step 2. Lesson 6: lerobot-eval, videos, and comparing two training runs.
Requires the previous three. Lessons 7 and 8: the correction loop and the checklist, with safety kept outside the model.
Choose, train, evaluate, and take it to the real world. Each step uses what the previous one delivered.
Suggested order: each step uses what the previous one set up.
Pick the start date and how much time you have per week.