Agility Robotics’ Digit Gets Face, Hands

Agility Robotics has unveiled the latest iteration of its humanoid, multi-purpose Digit robot that now comes with a face and hands.

The new robotic head features a row of sensors along its sides and LED lights simulating eyes that change to indicate the system’s movement and intent, which the company says helps “improve human-robot interaction”.

Digit’s new hands are a simple design, enabling greater ease of interaction with objects such as plastic totes and boxes around a warehouse.

Digit 2.0 is designed for logistics work, such as bulk material handling in warehouses and distribution centers and CEO Damion Shelton said the new design was created with customer use cases from logistics companies in mind.

“Three years ago, we introduced the first commercially available bi-pedal robot with a human form factor made for work,” said Shelton. “Since then, we have seen enormous interest in Digit from multinational logistics companies and have worked closely with them to understand how they want to use Digit to improve warehouse and supply chain operations.

“Supply chains are still feeling the aftereffects of the pandemic, and the demand for warehouse labor far exceeds available talent. With logistics labor issues such as high turnover, burnout, and injury continuing to rise, we believe Digit to be the future of work.”

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Digit 2.0 will be on display at ProMat 2023 in Chicago in March, doing fully autonomous live demonstrations in a replica warehouse work cell for an audience of 45,000 attendees.

Agility has also announced it is opening a limited number of spots in its Agility Partner Program (APP) for “forward-thinking companies” looking to deploy Digit. APP participants will be able to see Digit in action and offer opinions on how to hone the robot’s skills to best suit logistics use cases.