After a successful proof-of-concept pilot in 2023, Agility recently announced that it has entered into a multi-year agreement with GXO Logistics, Inc. to start using Digit robots in GXO’s warehouses.
“There will be many firsts in the humanoid robot market in the years to come, but I’m extremely proud of the fact that Agility is the first with actual humanoid robots deployed at a customer site, generating revenue, and solving real-world business problems,” said Peggy Johnson, Agility Robotics’ CEO. “Agility has always been focused on the only metric that matters – delivering value to our customers by putting Digit to work – and this milestone deployment raises the bar for the entire industry.”
A Mobile Manipulation Robot (MMR) with a carrying capacity of 35 lb (15.9 kg), Digit is probably best known for its distinctive ‘backward’ legs. Under the RaaS agreement, GXO will deploy Digit fleets and Agility Arc, the cloud-based automation platform that provides complete robotic control and simplifies processes such as facility mapping, workflow definition, operational management and troubleshooting.
Digit and Agility Arc will integrate with existing automation in the Spanx factory. Following on from last year’s pilot, Digit will assist with repetitive tasks like taking totes from other bots and placing them on conveyors.
“We’re building on the success of last year’s groundbreaking pilot with Agility by deploying fully operational Digit humanoids into a live warehouse environment,” said Adrian Stoch, Chief Automation Officer at GXO. “Our R&D approach is to partner with developers all over the world to help them build and validate practical use cases that improve the working environment for our employees while optimizing operations for our customers. Agility shares this philosophy, and Digit is the perfect addition to work alongside our people in our fulfillment center. We’re delighted to progress our partnership through this critical milestone.”
The RaaS agreement also allows both companies to explore additional use cases for Digit and scale the robot’s usage according to demand throughout the deployment period.
Digit is already an award-winning robot, taking out Robot of the Year in the RBR50 Robotics Innovation Awards earlier in 2024.
Source: Agility Robotics