# Physical AI Handbook

> An independent handbook on physical AI: robot foundation models, safety and risk, deployment, hardware, simulation, and the standards that govern robots working around people.

Each article opens with key takeaways, ends with a list of primary sources, and shows its publication and last-updated dates.

## Foundations

Plain-language foundations of physical AI and embodied intelligence: definitions, the robot software stack, and how the field got here.

- [Foundations — chapter overview](https://physicalaihandbook.com/topics/foundations/)
- [What is physical AI? A working definition](https://physicalaihandbook.com/blog/what-is-physical-ai/): Physical AI is AI that perceives the real world and acts on it through a machine body. What the term covers, how the stack works, and why it is hard.

## Robot Models

Robot foundation models explained: vision-language-action (VLA) models, world models, imitation and reinforcement learning, and how to compare them.

- [Robot Models — chapter overview](https://physicalaihandbook.com/topics/models/)
- [Vision-language-action models (VLAs), explained](https://physicalaihandbook.com/blog/vision-language-action-models-explained/): A VLA model turns camera images and a text instruction into robot actions. How they work, how the main architectures differ, and where they fail.

## Safety & Risk

Robot safety engineering: risk assessment, functional safety, collaborative operation, failure modes of learned policies, and incident analysis.

- [Safety & Risk — chapter overview](https://physicalaihandbook.com/topics/safety/)
- [Robot risk assessment: the ISO 12100 method, step by step](https://physicalaihandbook.com/blog/robot-risk-assessment-iso-12100/): How to run a robot risk assessment using ISO 12100: set limits, identify hazards, estimate and evaluate risk, then reduce it — and what AI changes.

## Deployment

Practical robot deployment: site readiness, integration, acceptance testing, fleet operations, teleoperation, robots-as-a-service and ROI.

- [Deployment — chapter overview](https://physicalaihandbook.com/topics/deployment/)
- [Robot deployment checklist: from pilot to production](https://physicalaihandbook.com/blog/robot-deployment-pilot-to-production/): Why robot pilots stall and how to avoid it: process selection, site readiness, integration, acceptance criteria, and the metrics that matter in production.

## Hardware

Robot hardware explained: actuators and transmissions, end effectors and hands, sensors, onboard compute, power, and form factors from arms to humanoids.

- [Hardware — chapter overview](https://physicalaihandbook.com/topics/hardware/)
- [Humanoid robot anatomy: actuators, hands, sensors, compute](https://physicalaihandbook.com/blog/humanoid-robot-anatomy/): What is inside a humanoid robot: actuators and transmissions, hands, sensors, onboard compute and batteries — and how each limits capability and safety.

## Simulation & Data

Robot data and simulation: teleoperation data collection, synthetic data, simulators, the sim-to-real gap, and open robot datasets.

- [Simulation & Data — chapter overview](https://physicalaihandbook.com/topics/simulation-data/)
- [The sim-to-real gap: why simulated robots fail on hardware](https://physicalaihandbook.com/blog/sim-to-real-gap/): The sim-to-real gap is the performance lost when a simulation-trained policy runs on a real robot. What causes it and the techniques used to close it.

## Standards & Regulation

Robot standards and regulation: ISO 10218, ISO/TS 15066, ISO 13482, ISO 3691-4, the EU Machinery Regulation, the EU AI Act, OSHA and liability.

- [Standards & Regulation — chapter overview](https://physicalaihandbook.com/topics/regulation/)
- [Robot safety standards: which one applies to your robot](https://physicalaihandbook.com/blog/robot-safety-standards-map/): A map of robot safety standards — ISO 10218, ISO/TS 15066, ISO 3691-4, R15.08, ISO 13482 — and the EU laws behind them, by robot type.

## Reference

- [Glossary](https://physicalaihandbook.com/glossary/): Short definitions of physical AI and robotics terms.
- [About](https://physicalaihandbook.com/about/): Who writes the handbook and its editorial rules.
- [RSS feed](https://physicalaihandbook.com/rss.xml)