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2023 was the 12 months that humanoid robots took massive strides onto the general public stage, and Agility Robotics pulled forward in that race with Digit, which is our first-ever RBR50 Robotic of the Yr.
At ProMAT final 12 months, Digit stole the present by demonstrating its skill to choose up totes from a shelf, stroll over to a conveyor, and place the totes onto the conveyor. On the time, Corvallis, Ore.-based Agility Robotics mentioned the demo was primarily based on an actual buyer use case.
Later in 2023, the company introduced pilots with two main prospects: Amazon and GXO Logistics, which claims to be the world’s largest pure-play contract logistics supplier. Digit is 5 ft., 9 in (175cm) tall, weighs 143 lb. (64.8 kg), and may carry as much as 35 lb. (18 kg).
In October, Amazon and Agility said the humanoid robotic was being examined at Amazon’s robotics analysis and improvement facility exterior of Seattle. The preliminary use of Digit is to assist staff with tote recycling, a extremely repetitive strategy of selecting up and shifting empty totes as soon as stock has been utterly picked out of them.
In December 2023, GXO announced that Digit is being examined for logistics duties at a SPANX facility in Georgia. Digit is shifting totes stuffed with merchandise off of autonomous cellular robots (AMRs) and onto a conveyor. Agility mentioned on the time that Digit will talk with the AMR fleet supervisor sooner or later.
Adrian Stoch, chief automation officer at GXO, mentioned Digit’s potential flexibility provides it a nod over different varieties of robots, together with AMRs with prime modules.
“The true utility right here is end-to-end product circulate all through the warehouse,” he mentioned. “Till now, options have been largely discrete purposes: goods-to-person, sorters, wearable tech. Fixing discrete issues in a single a part of the puzzle.”
For corporations working achievement facilities with a large product combine or fluctuating demand, the potential flexibility of humanoids might assist fill the continuing labor disaster.
Agility Robotics not too long ago launched Agility Arc, a cloud platform for managing operations, and it partnered with warehouse administration techniques (WMS) supplier Manhattan Associates.
We’ve by no means seen a humanoid carry out actual duties in a business setting, till now. Humanoids have lengthy been relegated to analysis labs, however the goalposts started to seismically shift in 2023.
Learn from Agility Robotics, Amazon, Disney, Teradyne and many more.
See Agility on the Robotics Summit
Jonathan Hurst, co-founder and chief robotic officer at Agility Robotics, shall be keynoting the Robotics Summit & Expo, which takes place Could 1 and a pair of in Boston and is produced by The Robot Report and mother or father firm WTWH Media. His discuss, “Humanoid Robots Get to Work,” will discover the technological breakthroughs propelling humanoids like Digit into real-world use instances.
Agility Robotics can even be featured within the present’s RBR50 Showcase. Go to Booth 448 on the present flooring to see Digit in motion. The showcase can even characteristic expertise from Boston Dynamics, Brightpick, Locus Robotics, and extra.
You can too be taught extra about Agility Robotics and the remainder of this 12 months’s RBR50 award winners on the first-ever RBR50 Gala. At 6:00 p.m. EDT after Day 1 of the present, the ticketed reception will enable attendees to community with the folks behind this 12 months’s most modern robots.
Registration is now open for the Robotics Summit & Expo.
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