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The Digit humanoid transports totes at a Spanx facility run by GXO Logistics in Georgia. | Credit score: Agility Robotics
Particulars are scarce in the intervening time, however Agility Robotics has a brand new strategic partnership. Schaeffler AG, a worldwide chief in movement expertise, is making a minority funding into Agility and shopping for Digit humanoid robots to be used throughout its world plant community.
The businesses didn’t disclose the scale of the funding, the variety of humanoids being bought, or what they’ll used for. The Robotic Report reached out to Agility Robotics and Schaeffler for extra particulars, however each corporations declined to remark.
“In disruptive instances, implementing revolutionary manufacturing options is essential to achieve success,” mentioned Andreas Schick, chief working officer of Schaeffler. “Right here, humanoids play an vital position. We, at Schaeffler, will combine this expertise into our operations and see the potential to deploy a major variety of humanoids in our world community of 100 crops by 2030. We stay up for the collaboration with Agility Robotics which can speed up our actions on this area.”
Agility Robotics received the inaugural RBR50 Robotic of the 12 months Award from The Robotic Report earlier in 2024. It was acknowledged for showcasing Digit’s capacity to carry out real-world work in pilots with Amazon and GXO Logistics.
Whereas the pilot with Amazon has been comparatively quiet, GXO formally deployed a “small fleet” of Digit humanoids at a Spanx facility in Georgia. The Digit humanoids decide up totes from 6 River Programs‘ Chuck autonomous cellular robots (AMRs) and place the totes onto conveyors.
Agility claimed that it was the primary firm to commercially deploy humanoids. It additionally asserted that the GXO deal was the primary robots-as-a-service (RaaS) implementation of such robots.
Humanoid improvement marches on
Many different corporations are additionally creating humanoids for industrial use, together with Apptronik, Boston Dynamics, Determine, and Sanctuary AI, to call a couple of. None of them, nonetheless, seem to have deployed their humanoids with clients past small trials.
“We’re excited to welcome Schaeffler as a buyer and investor, and stay up for delivering worth of their operations with Digit,” mentioned Peggy Johnson, who took over as Agility Robotics’ CEO in March 2024. “Whereas our expertise helps corporations like Schaeffler rework their manufacturing, logistics, and warehousing companies, scaling the usage of humanoid robots would require them to work cooperatively with people and out of doors of the protection cages they’re in right this moment.”
“I’m assured that within the subsequent 24 months, Agility would be the first firm to ship a secure humanoid robotic that may be capable of work alongside individuals,” she acknowledged.
There at the moment aren’t any security requirements for humanoids. Nonetheless, varied efforts are underneath method to discover a path ahead for related requirements. The IEEE Humanoids Examine Group simply launched a survey to raised perceive how human-robot interplay may have an effect on the event of requirements for humanoids.
Late final month, Boston Dynamics launched a powerful video of its new electrical Atlas humanoid. The video exhibits the robotic dealing with massive automotive elements autonomously. The corporate mentioned Atlas makes use of machine studying to execute its duties and 3D imaginative and prescient to understand the world round it.
