Humanoid robotics company Agility Robotics has announced a formal deal with logistics giant GXO to deploy its Digit robot in manufacturing processes. It’s a significant development for a robotics industry that has so far been full of promises and pilot programs but little in the way of practical results.
Fonte da imagem: Agility Robotics
The highly maneuverable Digit robot’s first assignment will be to move plastic containers at a Spanx factory in Georgia, USA. Although the number of robots that will work at this facility has not been announced, it can be assumed that it remains relatively small for now. If we were talking about tens or hundreds of thousands of robots, the parties would certainly be happy to share such information with the world.
According to TechCrunch, Digit’s systems will be leased on a robots-as-a-service (RaaS) model, allowing the company to avoid the huge upfront costs of a complex system while still having access to support and software updates.
Interestingly, Peggy Johnson, Agility’s current CEO, emphasized in March that the company’s focus on ROI (return on investment) sets it apart from other companies in the robotics category, where ROI results remain largely theoretical. “We’re going to see a lot of humanoid robots in the marketplace in the coming years, but I’m proud that Agility is the first company to deploy robots at a customer site where revenue is being generated and real business problems are being solved,” Johnson said.
Oregon-based Agility has been at the forefront of developing and deploying humanoid robots, so it’s no surprise that it’s the first to reach another major milestone in practical use. More leaders are likely to emerge in the future. GXO began a pilot with Digit robots last year, but recently announced a new pilot deal with one of Agility’s biggest competitors, Apptronik. It’s unclear how that will impact the relationship between the companies.