Agility Robotics

Agility Robotics, Inc.

Company type	Private
Industry	Robotics Artificial intelligence Automation
Founded	2015; 10 years ago (2015)
Founder	Jonathon Hurst Damion Shelton Mikhail Jones
Headquarters	Salem, Oregon
Products	Digit Humanoid Robot Agility Arc
Website	agilityrobotics.com

Agility Robotics, Inc. is a privately held American humanoid robotics and engineering company.^[1] The company was founded in 2015 as a spin-off from Oregon State University,^[2] and currently provides automation solutions, based around it's humanoid robot Digit.^[3][4]

History

The company was spun out of Oregon State University's Dynamic Robotics Lab in 2015. Jonathan Hurst created the robotics lab at Oregon State, and helped establish the scientific basis for dynamic stability and locomotion in bipedal robots. The lab was among the first to reproduce human-like walking dynamics with bipedal robots.^[2][5] That work would be the foundation of Agility Robotics, co-founded by Hurst, Damion Shelton, and Mikhail Jones.

As a part of spinning out from Oregon State, Agility brought with them their first robot, Cassie. A biped with no upper body, or perception systems. Cassie was sold as a research platform to labs, and innovation departments starting in 2016, and would go on to set the Guinness World Record for 100M run by a bipedal robot.^[6][7]

In 2017 the company released Digit a full size humanoid robot. Digit was equipped with a torso, arms, and a full perception system and was sold to academic labs and research institutes. The company sold a later version of Digit to Ford Motor Company to explore last mile delivery, an effort that paired Digit with early autonomous vehicles.^[8] In 2021 Agility expanded Digit's capabilities to serve the warehouse and logistics industry by focusing on bulk material handling tasks.^[9]

The current version of Digit was released in 2023 at ProMat a material handling and logistics tradeshow.^[10] Shortly after, the company announced their first humanoid robotics factory, located in Salem, Oregon and named RoboFab.^[11][12][13]

In late 2023 the company announced a partnership with Amazon to bring Digit to their facilities to support distribution and fulfillment tasks.^{[14][15][16][17]} Shortly after that Agility announced a similar partnership with GXO Logistics to work in their Spanx facility outside Atlanta, GA.^[18]

In 2024 Agility and GXO announced the first humanoid Robot-as-a-Service (RaaS) contract between the two companies, expanding the work done by Digit at their Spanx facility.^[3]

References

1. Kingson, Jennifer (March 14, 2024). "Coming soon: A programmable army of humanoid robots". Axios.
2. "Agility Robotics Introduces Cassie, a Dynamic and Talented Robot Delivery Ostrich - IEEE Spectrum". IEEE. Retrieved 2024-07-19.
3. Goldman, Sharon. "Agility Robotics' humanoid robot has its first real job—at a Spanx factory". Fortune. Retrieved 2024-07-19.
4. "Agility Robotics CEO on deploying humanoid robots". CNBC. 2024-06-27. Retrieved 2024-07-19.
5. Simon, Matt. "Want a Robot to Walk Like You? Don't Expect It to Look Human". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2024-07-19.
6. Verma, Pranshu (October 8, 2022). "Meet Cassie, the Usain Bolt of robots". The Washington Post.
7. Video: Half human-looking robot breaks speed record | CNN Business. 2022-09-28. Retrieved 2024-07-19 – via www.cnn.com.
8. Korosec, Kirsten (2020-01-06). "Agility's two-legged robot Digit is for sale and Ford is the first customer". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2024-07-19.
9. Heater, Brian (2021-09-01). "Agility Robotics' Digit gets a warehouse gig". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2024-07-19.
10. Heater, Brian (2023-03-20). "Meet the new face of Agility Robotics' Digit". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2024-07-19.
11. Kingson, Jennifer (December 5, 2023). "The first humanoid robot factory is about to open". Axios.
12. Kurt Knutsson, CyberGuy Report (2023-10-29). "First humanoid robot factory in the U.S. can crank out 10,000 robots a year". Fox News. Retrieved 2024-07-19.
13. McGee, Patrick (2023-10-18). "Robotics offers route for US manufacturing renaissance". Financial Times. Retrieved 2024-07-19.
14. "Humanoid Robots at Amazon Provide Glimpse of an Automated Workplace". Bloomberg.com. 2024-03-04. Retrieved 2024-07-19.
15. Herrera, Sebastian (October 18, 2023). "Amazon Introducing Warehouse Overhaul With Robotics to Speed Deliveries". The Wall Street Journal.
16. Heater, Brian (2023-10-18). "Amazon begins testing Agility's Digit robot for warehouse work". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2024-07-19.
17. Kopp, Veronica Miracle, Jeffrey (2023-10-25). "This company envisions a future where humanoid robots are as ubiquitous as smartphones | CNN Business". CNN. Retrieved 2024-07-19.
18. "Meet Digit, the humanoid robot working in a Spanx warehouse". The Seattle Times. 2023-12-18. Retrieved 2024-07-19.