Agility Robotics’ announced humanoid is built for heavy bins, long shifts, and coworkers nearby—not for running or jumping.
Agility Robotics has launched Digit 5, a larger humanoid robot designed to handle warehouse tasks around people, according to co-founder Jonathan Hurst in IEEE Spectrum. The company says it is moving beyond lab demonstrations toward a product shaped by lessons from customer deployments.
Digit 5 is designed to detect an approaching person, stop, place its load down, sit on the floor, and shut off its motors before contact. Agility says safety-rated sensors, protective housings, and separate safety computers drive much of the robot’s design.
That protection adds weight and power demands. Hurst says Digit 5 weighs more than 120 kilograms and is designed to repeatedly lift 23-kilogram bins to shelves 1.75 meters high. Agility also claims 90 minutes of operation followed by a full recharge during a nine-minute break.
The result is less agile than earlier Digits. The robot cannot run or jump as previous versions could, while its battery and cooling system occupy about 75% of its torso. Hurst compares the machine’s practical character more to a forklift than to a graceful human athlete.
The design targets a specific workplace problem: moving bins in narrow warehouse spaces, where two arms and legs can help with lifting and balance. IEEE Spectrum reports that an earlier Digit version was commercially deployed at logistics provider GXO, but the supplied account does not identify a customer, delivery date, price, or completed Digit 5 deployment.
Agility says its RoboFab facility can produce more than 10,000 Digit 5 robots annually. For operators, the next useful test is whether the safety response, lifting strength, and recharge cycle hold up during sustained warehouse work.