Agility Unveils Humanoid That Can Work Safely Alongside People

Agility Robotics Inc. on Tuesday unveiled a new humanoid that is designed to safely work in close proximity to people, a milestone for an industry that typically separates robots from human workers.

The latest humanoid from the Salem, Oregon-based company, the Digit 5, is designed to conduct complex work such as loading materials onto equipment, sorting parts, sequencing and inspecting items. That’s a step up from Agility’s previous humanoid, the Digit 4, which was known for its ability to stack plastic bins.

The prior Digit models were required to operate behind physical safety barriers, limiting their ability to take on tasks from humans. The Digit 5 is engineered to work near people without those barriers as part of a broader effort to deploy the company’s autonomous robots across more facilities.

“It’s a big deal, because what you’re looking at, probably for the first time, is a robot that has been built and designed around customer needs through operational deployments,” according to Daniel Diez, Agility’s chief business officer. “You cannot put 150 robots into a warehouse where every one of them has to be surrounded by a 10-by-20 plexiglass set of walls,” he said.

The robotics firm currently operates in nine customer facilities, including those of Schaeffler AG, GXO Logistics Inc. and Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada Inc., and has logged more than 65,000 hours of operation. Agility said it has about $300 million in multiyear orders for Digit and plans to expand in Europe starting early next year.

Agility is going public this year via a merger with special purpose acquisition company Churchill Capital Corp XI in a deal that values the robotics company at $2.5 billion. The company generated about $1.8 million in revenue in 2025 while posting a $140 million operating loss.

Chinese robotics firm Unitree went public in August on Shanghai’s stock exchange. Agility is among a crop of humanoid companies that have attracted investors in recent years. The company has raised $500 million to date.

To improve safety, the Digit 5 uses artificial intelligence algorithms and new sensors to understand when it is nearby people and take action, such as stopping or sitting, if necessary, to avoid a collision. It also uses visual and auditory cues to send alerts to others when it’s about to move. A software-based safety control mechanism powers the robot’s response in real time, the company said.

Still, humanoids with legs like the new Digit are more unpredictable and a bigger safety risk when operating near humans compared with similar devices with wheels.

The Digit 5 features a new leg design engineered to better handle repetitive lifting and up carrying capacity from about 35 pounds to 50 pounds at a time. It also has a 90-minute battery that charges in nine minutes, the company said. It has a swappable hand gripper that can handle a paddle, pincher, claw or five-fingered artificial hand.

“Everyone is obsessed with seeing these robots in the home, and what’s needed is cooperative safety — the ability for the robot to work in close proximity with people,” Diez said. He added that the company firmly believes “that the path to getting to the home is through industry.”