Humanoid robotics will not be won in isolated silos. Europe needs its open reference architecture.
While the US and China pour billions into vertically integrated, closed ecosystems, Europe risks falling into proprietary dependency. Yet Europe already possesses the world's premier sensor makers, precision actuator engineers, and safety testing bodies - scattered across uncoordinated proprietary interfaces.
EHRP was created to bridge this divide: a neutral, pre-competitive reference platform that unites Europe's robotics industry into an interoperable powerhouse. Open specifications, shared conformance test suites, zero proprietary lock-in.
Why is every robotics team in Europe recertifying the same safety baseline from scratch?
Building a humanoid robot is among the hardest multidisciplinary engineering challenges in modern technology. Spending countless development cycles reinventing emergency stop signal lines, isolated qualification evidence, and proprietary bus connectors is fatal in a hyper-fast market.
EHRP delivers the missing technical baseline: a shared signal convention, modular qualification evidence reuse, and open-source conformance test suites. We standardise the non-differentiating groundwork so European manufacturers can focus on what actually sets them apart: intelligence, dexterity, and real-world deployment.
"We did not launch EHRP to form another committee. We launched it because open reference architectures always defeat closed monopolies."
The history of computing, automotive networks, and mobile communications taught us a fundamental lesson: proprietary dead-ends burn capital, while open standards unlock trillion-dollar ecosystems. When we looked at Europe's emerging humanoid ecosystem, we saw brilliant minds held back by fragmented interfaces and looming regulatory hurdles under the EU AI Act and Machinery Regulation.
We decided to take initiative. Not to build a proprietary walled garden, but to lay down a neutral, open foundation that belongs entirely to the community. EHRP is our commitment to the future of European robotics.
Institutional Profile & Governance
Legal form: Planned as a registered association (eingetragener Verein, e.V.) based in Nuremberg, Germany.
Official designation: European Humanoid Reference Platform (EHRP).
Neutrality pledge: All rights to interface specifications, testing protocols, digital evidence formats, software tools, and the future conformity mark pass unconditionally to the registered association upon its formal founding. Neither isento GmbH nor any single commercial participant holds proprietary control or exclusive rights over the published standards.
Core Principles
- Pre-competitive: The focus lies strictly on interoperable interfaces, safety architectures, evidence formats, and validation tools, never on commercial products, pricing, or proprietary robotic applications.
- Open results: All adopted specifications, reference architectures, schemas, and test suites are published freely and openly under permissive licenses for the entire industry.
- Neutral & democratic: No single company, institution, or robot manufacturer dictates the standard. The conformity mark and technical direction belong exclusively to the collective governance of the association.
- European regulatory alignment: Closely aligned with the European Machinery Regulation (EU) 2023/1230, the EU AI Act, and ongoing standardisation activities in CEN/CENELEC, ISO, and IEC.
Who Takes Part
EHRP brings together all key stakeholders across the humanoid value chain:
- Universities & Research Institutes: Methodological rigor, academic neutrality, and formal test protocols.
- Component Manufacturers: Practical integration expertise for actuators, sensor suites, power systems, and buses.
- Robot OEMs & Integrators: Real-world industrial requirements, system integration test cases, and pilot platforms.
- Accredited Test Bodies: Qualification criteria, conformity assessment rules, and delta-testing validation.
Working groups are actively forming around the Signal Convention, Evidence Reuse, and Bus Architectures.