Oregon’s Agility Robotics inked a multiyear deal with a logistics giant for commercial deployment of its humanoid robots.
Agility is billing this as the first commercial deployment in the industry — which has been heating up with other high-profile companies like Figure AI, Tesla and Apptronik — and the first “robotics-as-a-service" for a humanoid robot.
Agility’s agreement is with GXO Logistics (NYSE: GXO). The two companies began working together last year on a pilot program that saw Agility’s Digit robots testing in GXO’s Flowery Branch, Georgia, distribution warehouse. The facility handles distribution for women’s wear company Spanx.
This agreement is just for the Flowery Branch facility. The companies declined to say how many Digits would be deployed other than to describe it as a “small fleet.” The Digit robots will be deployed and managed through Agility’s software platform Agility Arc.
“Our R&D approach is to partner with developers all over the world to help them build and validate practical use cases that improve the working environment for our employees while optimizing operations for our customers,” said Adrian Stoch, chief automation officer for GXO, in a written statement. “Agility shares this philosophy, and Digit is the perfect addition to work alongside our people in our fulfillment center. We’re delighted to progress our partnership through this critical milestone.”
Connecticut-based GXO has 970 warehouse locations across 27 countries and in 2023 had $9.8 billion in revenue.
Digit is being used on repetitive tasks in the warehouse such as moving totes of goods and placing them on conveyor belts or shelves. It also works with GXO’s existing autonomous mobile robots that move products around a facility. GXO says it sees the robots increasing safety in the warehouses while allowing human workers to do more “value-added work.”
This is a big milestone for Agility. The company has been in development for years and has recently moved into commercialization of its robotics. Founded in 2015, Agility grew out of research at Oregon State University. The company is co-headquartered in Tangent, Oregon, where the company has its research hub, and Pittsburgh.
“There will be many firsts in the humanoid robot market in the years to come, but I’m extremely proud of the fact that Agility is the first with actual humanoid robots deployed at a customer site, generating revenue, and solving real-world business problems,” said Agility CEO Peggy Johnson in a written statement. Johnson took over the top job earlier this year. “Agility has always been focused on the only metric that matters — delivering value to our customers by putting Digit to work — and this milestone deployment raises the bar for the entire industry.”
Digit robots are manufactured in Oregon. The company has started production at its Salem manufacturing facility.
