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Humanoid Constitution Specification

Writer: Dorian Cartwright
Dorian Cartwright
Jul 7
4 min read

Abstract

This document defines the Humanoid Constitution, a machine-enforceable governance architecture that regulates physical authority within humanoid robots. The Constitution establishes rules governing physical execution, mission authority, ownership, custody, trust, human interaction, validator selection, and release authorization. Unlike conventional safety systems, the Constitution represents a first-class operating-system abstraction that determines whether a proposed physical action is authorized before actuator execution.


The Humanoid Constitution is independent of any specific hardware platform, robot vendor, artificial intelligence model, or operating system implementation and may be implemented as part of a Humanoid Operating System, Physical AI Operating System (PAIOS), runtime environment, middleware, hypervisor, or embedded controller.


Status of This Document

This document is published by Trust Robotics as Draft Standard Version 0.1.


The specification is expected to evolve through future RFCs.


Implementations may differ while maintaining compatibility with the architectural concepts defined herein.


This document is intended to establish common terminology and architectural priciples for constitution-governed humanoid robots.

1. Introduction

Modern humanoid robots possess increasing physical capability.


Unlike conventional industrial robots operating inside safety cages, humanoid robots increasingly operate among humans in homes, hospitals, offices, retail stores, public sidewalks, warehouses, schools, airports, factories, and transportation systems.


As robots become autonomous, society requires mechanisms governing not merely how robots move, but whether they are authorized to perform particular physical actions.


This document introduces the concept of a Humanoid Constitution.


A Constitution defines machine-enforceable rules governing physical execution.


The Constitution operates independently of applications and artificial intelligence models.


Rather than trusting every application or AI model, the Constitution evaluates candidate physical actions before execution.

The Humanoid Constitution is intended to provide:

  • Physical authority management

  • Human safety

  • Mission governance

  • Ownership validation

  • Custody control

  • Trust management

  • Validator selection

  • Whole-body coordination

  • Deterministic execution authorization

  • Auditable decision-making

Constitution

A machine-readable collection of rules governing physical execution.


Candidate Action

A proposed physical action generated by an application, planner, or AI model.


Candidate actions are not executable until constitutionally authorized.


Validator

A computational component evaluating one or more aspects of a candidate action.


Examples include:

  • balance

  • collision

  • tactile

  • ownership

  • mission

  • custody

  • human proximity


Release Token

A cryptographically or logically protected authorization permitting execution of a specific candidate action.


Without a Release Token, actuator execution shall not occur.


Mission Authority

Authorization permitting a robot to perform a mission.


Mission Authority may include:

  • ownership

  • custody

  • insurance

  • jurisdiction

  • supervision

  • operating hours

  • destination

The Constitution occupies an operating-system layer between applications and physical execution.


Applications

↓

Humanoid Runtime

↓

Mission Authority Runtime

↓

Constitution Runtime

↓

Validator Graph

↓

Release Token Authority

↓

Actuator Runtime

↓

Actuator Firewall

↓

Hardware


Applications request actions.

The Constitution authorizes actions.

The Actuator Firewall enforces actions.

The Constitutional Runtime performs:

  • constitution loading

  • policy evaluation

  • validator selection

  • authority determination

  • release-token generation

  • audit logging

  • exception handling


The runtime executes independently of application software.

The Constitution defines runtime objects.


Examples include:


Mission Object

Capability Object

Validator Object

Trust Object

Ownership Object

Custody Object

Human Object

Tool Object

Release Token Object

Execution Manifest Object

Safety Envelope Object


These objects may be managed by the Humanoid Memory Manager.

Constitutional policies may include:


Ownership

Who controls the robot?

Custody

Who currently bears responsibility?

Insurance

Is financial responsibility available?

Mission

Is this task authorized?

Human Contact

May the robot touch a human?

Workspace

May the robot enter this area?

Tool Use

May this tool be operated?

Environment

Is the environment appropriate?

Validators evaluate candidate actions.


Example validator graph:


Candidate Action

↓

Mission Validator

↓

Ownership Validator

↓

Human Contact Validator

↓

Balance Validator

↓

Collision Validator

↓

Tactile Validator

↓

Release Token


Validators may execute sequentially or in parallel.

A Release Token authorizes physical execution.


A Release Token may include:

  • action identifier

  • actuator identifiers

  • capability

  • expiration

  • force limits

  • speed limits

  • workspace

  • duration

  • validator results


Release Tokens may be revoked.

Mission Authority determines whether the robot is authorized to perform a task.


Example:


Owner instructs robot:


Walk from San Francisco to New York


Mission Authority evaluates:

  • ownership

  • custody

  • insurance

  • battery

  • charging

  • jurisdictions

  • supervision

  • fallback custody


The mission may be:

  • approved

  • denied

  • segmented

  • modified

Applications do not directly touch humans.


Instead:


Application

↓

RequestHumanContact()

↓

Constitution

↓

Validators

↓

Release Token

↓

Actuator Firewall

↓

Touch


This architecture separates human-contact authority from application logic.

Example 1


RequestWalk()


Constitution evaluates:

  • balance

  • mission

  • custody

  • route


Example 2


RequestGrasp()


Evaluates:

  •  tactile

  •  object

  •  force

  •  tool


Example 3


RequestHumanContact()


Evaluates:

  • consent

  • mission

  • proximity

  • force

  • duration

Implementations should protect:

  • Constitutions

  • Release Tokens

  • Validator Results

  • Mission Authority

  • Runtime Objects


Constitutions should be cryptographically authenticated.


Release Tokens should be resistant to replay.

This specification is complemented by the following planned RFCs.


TR-RFC-0002

Runtime Objects


TR-RFC-0003

Humanoid Operating System


TR-RFC-0004

Body Resource Manager


TR-RFC-0005

Mission Authority Runtime


TR-RFC-0006

Humanoid Scheduler


TR-RFC-0007

Humanoid Memory Manager


TR-RFC-0008

Humanoid Network Stack


TR-RFC-0009

Humanoid APIs


TR-RFC-0010

Constitution Compiler


Copyright


Copyright © 2026 Trust Robotics.


This document defines an open architectural specification intended to promote interoperable humanoid operating-system architectures.


Implementation of technologies described herein may be covered by issued patents and pending patent applications owned by Trust Robotics. Publication of this specification does not grant any patent license.


Commercial implementations may require a separate license from Trust Robotics.

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