Robots for America Launches Industry Coalition to Advance US Robotics Deployment Policy
A new national coalition of robotics and AI companies launched at the SCSP AI+ Expo, organized at the request of the White House and Congress to address the US manufacturing competitiveness gap.
Editor's Note ·
- Clarification:
- The article quotes Saman Farid (CEO, Formic) as saying: "The U.S. has every ingredient it needs to lead the next era of manufacturing. What has been missing is a coordinated policy framework that removes the real barriers standing between American manufacturers and the automation they need." The full quote in the source (BusinessWire/Yahoo Finance press release) includes two additional sentences not present in the article: "The companies, the technology, the facilities are all here." (between sentence one and two) and "That is what Robots for America exists to build." (at the end). The article presents the truncated version without ellipsis, making it appear complete. The substance of the quote is accurately conveyed.
Overview
A new national coalition of robotics companies and manufacturers, Robots for America (RFA), launched on May 8 at the SCSP AI+ Expo in Washington, D.C., releasing a coordinated policy platform aimed at accelerating automation deployment across American industry. The coalition formed at the direct request of officials from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Department of Commerce, the Small Business Administration, and the U.S. Senate, according to BusinessWire.
What We Know
Robots for America launched with seventeen founding members, including Formic, Machina Labs, Standard Bots, Dexterity, Path Robotics, Chef Robotics, GrayMatter Robotics, Mytra, Mujin, Viam, AMP Sortation, Robot.com, Medra, MFR.IO, CreateMe, New American Industrial Alliance, and the Digital Manufacturing & Cybersecurity Institute, as reported by Yahoo Finance.
The coalition’s founding policy framework targets five areas: lowering the financial risk of robotic trials, modernizing how automation is treated under the tax code, streamlining permitting and regulatory approvals, building the workforce needed to support deployment, and enabling autonomous logistics across the supply chain.
Saman Farid, CEO of Formic and an RFA founding member, said in the coalition’s announcement: “The U.S. has every ingredient it needs to lead the next era of manufacturing. What has been missing is a coordinated policy framework that removes the real barriers standing between American manufacturers and the automation they need.”
Edward Mehr, Founder and CEO of Machina Labs, framed the coalition’s ambition in terms of long-range industrial planning: “It is time for the government to step into the supply chain and set requirements for what manufacturing looks like in 10 to 20 years. To say: I want manufacturing to be flexible, adoptable, deployable. They need to start thinking about what type of manufacturing we need in the future.”
Nick Ayala, Director of Strategy and Operations at GrayMatter Robotics, added: “The days of being okay with missed deadlines are over.”
The coalition has stated that over the next three years it intends to establish robotics as a recognized pillar of U.S. industrial policy, build representation for American factory operators in Washington, shift the public conversation around automation, and expand access to robotics technology for small and mid-size manufacturers.
What We Don’t Know
The coalition has not disclosed specific legislative proposals, funding commitments, or a timeline for any concrete regulatory or tax-code changes. It is unclear which members of Congress or which officials from the named agencies issued the call to organize. The coalition’s stated three-year agenda has not been accompanied by measurable milestones or an accountability framework.
Whether the coalition will attract broader membership from larger industrial automation companies — none of which appear among the founding members — also remains to be seen.
Analysis
The formation of Robots for America reflects a shift in how the robotics industry is engaging with Washington. Rather than individual companies lobbying independently, the sector is now presenting a unified front with a shared policy agenda, a move that mirrors how other industries — semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, electric vehicles — have organized to shape federal priorities.
The explicit government request that prompted the coalition’s formation is notable: it suggests that policymakers are looking to the automation industry for guidance rather than simply responding to it. Whether that posture translates into durable policy changes or remains at the level of advisory coordination will depend on how successfully RFA can convert its founding energy into specific legislative outcomes.
The focus on mid-market manufacturers is a recurring theme in automation policy discussions. Large automotive and electronics manufacturers have deployed industrial robots at scale for decades. The policy gap has traditionally been at smaller facilities, where upfront costs, integration complexity, and workforce uncertainty have kept adoption low. RFA’s emphasis on reducing trial risk and modernizing tax treatment is targeted directly at those friction points.