Agility Robotics is opening a new 60,000-square-foot facility in Fremont, California, to train its Digit humanoid robots in skills and processes that replicate the environments where they will operate in the field. The facility is located a short distance from the highway leading to Tesla’s factory, where the company is expected to begin manufacturing its Optimus humanoid robots this year.
The move comes as Tesla increases its bet on Optimus, with Elon Musk recently saying that he expects the robot to become “the biggest product ever” once it becomes useful outside Tesla sometime next year. Agility, however, believes it has a practical advantage in that Digit is already operating at real-world sites and generating revenue by performing tasks in factories and warehouses.
Commercial Experience at Customer Sites
Companies including Amazon, GXO, Schaeffler and Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada use Digit robots to move boxes and containers within manufacturing and logistics environments. Agility says it has received contractual orders worth $300 million for its robots, but it has not disclosed how many Digit units it has built or deployed. Outside observers estimate that dozens have participated in trials or revenue-generating operations.
CEO Peggy Johnson said the company now knows what is required to introduce robots into facilities, including meeting safety standards and regulatory and compliance requirements, as well as connecting the robots to information-technology infrastructure and warehouse-management systems. The company said, for example, that Digit robots moved 100,000 containers at a GXO logistics facility.
A Facility to Accelerate Deployments
Agility is in discussions with more than 30 customers about deploying Digit and will use the new facility to teach the six-foot-tall robot new skills in environments close to actual working conditions. Johnson is leading the company through a reverse merger that is expected to make Agility the first company focused exclusively on humanoid robots to be listed on public markets later this year.
Agility was founded in 2015 by a group of researchers who developed new technologies to help robots walk safely on two legs. The company is trying to capitalize on its lead over a newer generation of humanoid-robotics startups, including Figure, 1X, Bot Company and Sunday Robotics.
A Practical Approach to AI and Safety
Although neural networks based on the Transformer architecture, among the technologies that helped drive the rise of large language models, may bring important improvements to robot behavior, Agility is taking a practical approach to autonomy. Co-founder and Chairman Damion Shelton said core safety systems should not rely on generative AI, comparing them to anti-lock braking systems in self-driving cars, because the safety layer is not an appropriate place for uncontrolled “innovation.”
By contrast, Shelton believes generative AI can address the problem of scaling robot programming, since the number of tasks that can be imagined is far greater than the number of engineers able to program them.
Agility does not currently plan to offer humanoid robots for home use. Digit currently operates in spaces where there are no people, but the fifth version expected to be unveiled this fall will be able to sense the presence of people and will not need to remain in an area reserved exclusively for robots. Co-founder and Chief Robotics Officer Jonathan Hurst believes that manufacturing and logistics alone provide the company with a broad range of tasks, beginning with moving boxes and containers and extending to picking, kitting, handling cardboard, and loading and unloading trucks.