Toyota Deploys Digit Humanoids at Canadian Plants

Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada's largest operation outside Japan is adding Agility Robotics’ Digit to its line, turning a year-long pilot into a formal deployment to move bins and unload totes in the factory.

The announcement follows a pilot that used three Digits at TMMC and reached a positive verdict on reliability and workflow gains. Toyota plans to expand to seven additional humanoids to handle loading and unloading totes from an automated tugger, with further scaling contingent on success. The deal sits on top of a broader interest in humanoid assistance across Toyota’s network, as the company seeks to liberate human workers from repetitive motions and improve overall line efficiency.

In the initial pilot, Digit demonstrated a plausible path for flexible material handling within a high-volume automotive environment. The collaboration leveraged a “Robot-as-a-Service” style model in a similar context at GXO Logistics, showing the Digits can operate in real-world material flow without requiring bespoke fixed infrastructure. The investors and plant leadership highlighted Digit’s potential to augment human teams and shorten cycle times in a facility that built more than 535,000 vehicles in 2025 and employs more than 8,500 people across Cambridge and Woodstock.

The technical details surrounding this specific deployment—most notably the number of degrees of freedom (DOF) and the exact payload Digit can carry—have not been disclosed in the public materials accompanying the agreement. Engineering documentation and public materials from Agility have historically emphasized Digit’s capability to manipulate bins and totes, but neither Toyota nor Agility publicly published precise DOF counts or payload ratings for this industrial rollout. In other words, the primary event is deployment progress, not a catalog of new specs.

What does this mean for the broader humanoid trend in manufacturing? First, it signals a shift from pilot curiosity to production-scale capability. Three Digits moving bins in a year-long pilot is a signal that the technology has matured beyond a proof-of-concept for this use case. Second, the plan to add seven more units—and potentially more—reflects a creeping realism about how many robots it takes to meaningfully move material through a modern plant, especially when the tasks involve loading and unloading totes from automated tugger systems. A field-ready humanoid solution now sits in the same factory where Toyota builds its vehicles, hinting at a future where such robots blend with human teams on the line rather than sit in isolated cells.

From a practitioner’s perspective, there are several constraints and tradeoffs to watch:

DOF and control complexity. Without disclosed DOF and gripper specs for this deployment, operators must anticipate a control stack that handles multiple simultaneous tasks (grasping, bin manipulation, path planning around human coworkers). In practice, the more DOF a robot has, the more sophisticated the perception and safety layers must be to prevent misgrips or collisions, which slows rollout unless matched with robust calibration and training.

Payload and bin variability. Tote sizes, weights, and packaging vary; the robot’s end effector and grip reliability become a tangible bottleneck. In production environments, even small misalignment costs can add up to throughput drag, so the system must tolerate variation in totes and pallet configurations.

Runtime and charging. Field deployments stress battery life, charging downtime, and maintenance windows. A scalable plan demands predictable runtimes and quick-turn servicing so that robot availability matches production schedules.

Safety and integration. A humanoid on a line introduces interaction concerns with workers and other automated systems. The deployment implies sufficient safety interlocks, collaborative operation modes, and integration with existing line controls.

Comparison to prior demonstrations in the space suggests this is less about a flashy demonstration and more about operational discipline: a measured migration from rules-based automation toward adaptable, mobile assistance. Toyota’s move to expand Digits alongside its main manufacturing footprint mirrors a broader industry trend—humanoids serving as flexible, mobile payload carriers in environments designed around human workers, not just fixed conveyors.

The real test, however, is in performance at scale. If the seven new Digits prove reliable, and if the collaboration proves cost-effective—considering maintenance, downtime, and worker productivity gains—Toyota could become a template for how large automotive operations justify humanoid investments beyond pilot programs. The technology is closing the gap between concept and factory floor reality, but the path to widespread field-readiness remains iterative, data-driven, and intensely hands-on.

Sources

Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada to deploy Agility Robotics’ Digit humanoids