Agility mentioned it engineered Digit 5 for cooperatively protected work at scale. | Supply: Agility Robotics
Agility Robotics at present unveiled Digit 5, the most recent model of its humanoid robotic. The information comes as Agility prepares to go public by way of a proposed SPAC merger with Churchill Capital Corp. XI.
The newest model of Digit consists of new legs, upgraded batteries, and a extra complete security structure. Agility Robotics informed The Robotic Report Digit 5 can work in shut proximity to folks with out bodily security limitations.
“Digit 5 is eradicating a serious barrier to scaling humanoid robots in industrial environments,” mentioned Peggy Johnson, CEO of Agility Robotics. “We constructed it to the precise necessities our clients gave us after three years of Digit 4 engaged on their manufacturing flooring, and the market has responded with greater than $300 million in multi-year orders and a rising pipeline of shoppers throughout manufacturing, warehousing, and logistics. That’s worth that compounds as Digit’s capabilities increase, backed by actual demand.”
Based on current filings with the SEC, Agility Robotics generated $1.8 million in internet gross sales in 2025. The SPAC values Agility at $2.5 billion. Agility expects to start early entry to Digit 5 within the first half of 2027. It expects basic availability for manufacturing, warehouse and distribution operators by the top of 2027.
Agility plans to make Digit 5 out there for industrial deployment exterior North America for the primary time, beginning with the European Union and United Kingdom. The corporate mentioned it expects Digit 5 to hold a CE mark and extra regulatory marks to allow market entry to the EU, Nice Britain, and Northern Eire.
What has Agility discovered from deployments?
Digit is without doubt one of the solely humanoid robots at the moment working in manufacturing, distribution, and logistics environments. Jonathan Hurst, co-founder and chief robotic officer at Agility, mentioned earlier variations of Digit have been a part of the corporate’s proof-of-concept section.
“I bear in mind having this eye-opening second for us after we have been early on working with Amazon,” Hurst informed The Robotic Report. “We have been doing the job, shifting the bins off the putwall and doing the duty, and we’re like, ‘Nice, now can we scale this up? What number of would you want to purchase? Can we deploy these?’”
Hurst mentioned that is when the group encountered the fact of FCC necessities, UL certifications, ISO certifications, and extra that include deployments. Doing the duty by itself wasn’t sufficient to deploy robots at scale.
“We really began to study what the blockers are, what are the issues which are going to maintain us from deploying,” Hurst mentioned. “Now with the within data of the ten use instances on our roadmap that Digit 5 will do, and deep understanding with a number of clients, what is totally essential for a robotic to realize these issues?”
This extends past security necessities and requirements, Hurst mentioned. It additionally comes all the way down to the logistics of working a robotic in any facility. It consists of issues like the scale of the aisles the robotic will function in, the place chargers will be bolted down, what does the workflow seem like, and way more. As Agility works with clients on particular use instances, these constraints flip into a whole bunch of engineering necessities, Hurst mentioned.
“That’s the basis of the design for Digit 5,” Hurst mentioned. “That’s not one thing we’ve ever completed earlier than, organizationally. That’s a really exhausting factor. It’s a really completely different factor than designing a robotic that may do what engineers think about as a expertise demonstration.”
A few of these sensible modifications are available Digit’s {hardware}. For instance, Digit 5 comes with a sooner autonomous charger. Now, Digit can function for 90 minutes and be totally charged up in simply 9. This offers Digit 5 a ten:1 run-to-charge ratio, up from Digit 4’s 2:1. It allows Digit to work greater than 20 hours in a 24-hour day.
Since its first industrial deployments, Digit 4 has largely centered on automating tote-based materials dealing with. Digit 5 will add extra manipulation expertise and increase to cowl a facility’s full workflow, Agility mentioned. This consists of depalletizing items as they arrive, machine tending, kitting and sequencing, high quality inspection as objects transfer by way of the power, and at last palletizing them for cargo as they depart.
Digit’s new knees to deal with industrial work
Digit 5 has the next payload, taller attain, sooner charging, and swappable end-effectors. | Supply: Agility Robotics
Some of the noticeable modifications to Digit 5 is its legs. As an alternative of the corporate’s ostrich-like backwards knees, Digit 5 has extra conventional, human-like legs.
“The earlier leg configuration was actually optimized for superb strolling and working,” Hurst mentioned. “The brand new configuration is optimized for lifting heavy issues and getting up and down off the bottom so much.”
The brand new legs are powered by proprietary cycloidal actuators, which allow it to repeatedly carry as much as 50 lb (22.7 kg) hundreds. Hurst mentioned this permits Digit to totally cowl single-person carry duties in OSHA-regulated amenities.
“The product necessities push us within the route of lifting heavy issues on a regular basis,” Hurst mentioned. “Then, as we attempt to do the engineering to unravel this new precedence, we find yourself with one thing that appears a bit extra humanoid. That’s encouraging, however it’s actually vital that we’re not making an attempt to repeat what an individual appears to be like like or what an animal appears to be like like. That is the place the engineering took us. Future configurations might look completely different relying on the necessities.”
Digit additionally options padding on its knees that assist it kneel. Moreover, it’s new legs enable sit to squat down right into a secure place. This offers Digit the flexibility to sit down down on the bottom and switch off its motors when an individual approaches, a core a part of Agility’s security technique. “The robotic must be in a statically secure publish and be capable to flip off its motors earlier than an individual can contact it,” Hurst mentioned.
Digit 5 can be taller and heavier than previous fashions, weighing in at 284 lb (129 kg) and standing at 5’ 11” (1.81 m). The robotic can attain heights of as much as 7.2 ft (2.2 m), up from Digit 4’s 5.5 ft.
How does Agility method manipulation?
Agility protects Digit’s platform with end-to-end encryption, strict entry controls, and localized information processing. | Supply: Agility Robotics
“One factor we discovered is that general-purpose arms don’t exist. There are none available on the market. There are none coming quickly. There are arms that seem like a human hand, however they’re not superb,” Hurst mentioned.
Agility is at the moment utilizing a two-fingered gripper, and the group’s inspiration comes from Cybathlon, an occasion the place amputees use prosthetics to finish in several manipulation challenges.
“The winners the final two years, and thus essentially the most dexterous manipulator on planet Earth that’s synthetic, is a parallel-jaw gripper,” Hursts mentioned. “All of those folks had five-fingered arms, however the lady who gained within the final two years has a single-degree-of-freedom, parallel-jaw gripper with a single diploma of freedom rotation on the wrist.”
Hurst believes there might be higher finish effectors sooner or later. However, for now, the corporate is concentrated on what works. “No hand that exists available on the market can decide up 25 kilogram bins and do advanced manipulation with them, however our manipulator can,” Hurst mentioned.
The brand new robotic encompasses a swappable gripper design with ISO-standard mounting flanges. This enables Digit’s instruments to be modified for the job at hand.
“We’re investing so much in [building end-effectors] in home, however we need to be very cautious to not undergo from the ‘not invented right here syndrome,’” Hurst mentioned. “If any individual else creates a hand that’s higher than what we’ve in-house for our use case, we are going to completely purchase that, stick it on the robotic, and use it.”
Security is the most important barrier for humanoids in industrial settings
Digit 5 stays totally built-in with Agility Arc, Agility’s cloud platform for deploying and managing Digit fleets. | Supply: Agility Robotics
The few humanoids which are being examined in industrial amenities at the moment aren’t working close to human staff. As an alternative, they’re working in roped-off areas far-off from any folks. Agility mentioned this gained’t be essential with Digit 5, which may work in shut proximity to folks.
With regards to security, Hurst mentioned there is no such thing as a silver bullet. “It’s not attainable to take an current robotic, add a security hat on it, after which have it function safely,” Hurst mentioned. “It’s fully holistic. It touches each characteristic of the robotic electrically, mechanically, sensors, computing, all the pieces.”
To have the ability to function close to folks, Agility geared up Digit 5 with proprietary AI algorithms and a number of sensor applied sciences to repeatedly monitor for folks. The robotic takes motion by autonomously avoiding, stopping or assuming a seated place. As folks get nearer to the robotic, it evaluates the chance, slows then, and ultimately stops fully. Based on Agility, the robotic responds dynamically to conditions to resolve its conduct, there aren’t any outlined zones.
“With the intention to step out of that bodily barrier, the hot button is with the ability to reliably, and in a certifiably security approach, detect people who find themselves approaching and the way far-off they’re,” Hurst mentioned. Digit 5 can detect folks inside a 360º radius across the robotic.
Digit 5 makes use of visible and auditory cues to convey intent to close by folks. As a ultimate layer of security, an impartial security controller oversees Digit’s response to the detection of individuals inside an unsafe distance and immediately triggers the suitable security responses.
“There’s a distinction between security as a private opinion about how protected you suppose a robotic is, and security as the commercial commonplace and regulatory course of that you simply undergo to make sure third events who’re unfamiliar with the expertise might be protected round these gadgets,” Hurst mentioned.
Editor’s Notice: Hurst might be collaborating within the keynote, “The Subsequent 20 Years of Robotics” at RoboBusiness on October 20-21. Pras Velagapudi, Agility’s CTO, will participate within the “State of Humanoids” keynote. Buy your full conference pass for the present now.
Register now and assist us have fun 20 years of RoboBusiness!The publish Agility’s Digit 5 humanoid has new legs, batteries and security upgrades appeared first on The Robotic Report.
