Agility Robotics' humanoid robots will work at GXO

Agility Robotics, a company specializing in the development of humanoid robots, has signed a deal with the logistics company GXO, under which its Digit robots will be involved in production processes.

As reported by Techcrunch.com, this is a significant development for the field of robotics, which until now has heard a lot of promises about the use of humanoid robots in various fields, had pilot programs, but did not lead to significant results in practice.

The highly maneuverable Digit robot's first task will be to move plastic containers at the Spanx factory in Georgia, USA. While it hasn't been announced how many robots will work at the facility, the source suggests it's still relatively small. If we were talking about tens or hundreds of thousands of robots, the parties would surely be happy to share such information with the whole world.

According to TechCrunch, Digit's systems will be leased in a robots-as-a-service (RaaS) model, allowing the company to avoid the huge upfront costs of a complex system while still getting support and software updates.

Agility CEO Peggy Johnson said in March that the company's focus on return on investment sets it apart from other companies in the robotics industry, where results in this regard remain largely theoretical.

"We'll see a lot of humanoid robots on the market in the coming years, but I'm proud that Agility is the first company to deploy robots on a customer's site where revenue is generated and real business problems are solved," Johnson said.

Agility, an Oregon-based company, is a leader in the development and deployment of humanoid robots, so it's no surprise that it's also a leader in achieving another milestone in putting these robots into practice. Obviously, other leaders will appear in this market in the future.

GXO started a pilot project with Digit robots last year, but recently announced a new pilot deal with Apptronik, one of Agility's biggest competitors.