Key facts
- Agility Robotics is opening a 60,000-square-foot training facility in Fremont, California.
- The facility is located near Tesla's planned Optimus robot manufacturing site.
- Agility's Digit robot is already generating revenue in manufacturing and warehouse settings.
- The company has secured $300 million in contract orders for its robots.
- Agility Robotics is pursuing a reverse-merger to become a publicly traded company.
- The upcoming version 5 Digit robot will be able to sense humans.
Agility Robotics is establishing a new 60,000-square-foot facility in Fremont, California, to train its Digit humanoid robots. This strategic location places Agility in close proximity to Tesla's anticipated Optimus robot manufacturing operations.
While Tesla, led by Elon Musk, is making a significant bet on its Optimus robot, Agility Robotics highlights that its Digit robot is already commercially deployed and generating revenue in manufacturing and warehouse environments for clients such as Amazon, GXO, Schaeffler, and Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada. The company has announced securing $300 million in contract orders for its robots.
Agility's CEO, Peggy Johnson, expressed enthusiasm for having competitors like Tesla in the same region, noting Agility's experience in meeting industrial safety and regulatory standards. The company has not disclosed exact deployment numbers but estimates suggest dozens of Digit robots are in pilot or revenue-generating roles. For instance, Digit robots have handled 100,000 totes at a GXO logistics facility.
Agility Robotics, founded in 2015 by researchers specializing in bipedal locomotion, is currently undergoing a reverse-merger that is expected to make it the first pure-play humanoid robot company on the public markets. The company is focusing on practical autonomy, with co-founder Damion Shelton emphasizing that safety-critical systems should not rely on generative AI, drawing an analogy to self-driving car safety controllers. However, Shelton also acknowledged generative AI's role in scaling application development for robots.
The new Fremont facility is designed to accelerate robot deployments and allow Digit to learn new skills in simulated real-world environments. Agility is not planning to develop in-home robots soon, aligning with expert opinions on current robot safety. The upcoming version 5 Digit, expected in the fall, will feature human-sensing capabilities, removing the need for robot-only zones. Co-founder Jonathan Hurst indicated a roadmap for Digit's capabilities, starting with handling bins and totes, progressing to picking and kitting, and eventually tackling tasks like loading and unloading tractor trailers.