Agility Robotics is launching a groundbreaking RoboFab in Salem, Oregon, which will produce its line of humanoid robots, Digit. The facility is projected to yield up to 10,000 Digit units annually, as well as employ 500 people, as reported by former Apple senior director of iPad operations, Aindrea Campbell. These robots have been engineered to function as "robotic co-workers", capable of navigating warehouses and factories, treading up or down stairs, and accessing tight spaces.
Agility Robotics is completing the construction of a 70,000 square-foot facility, dubbed "RoboFab," in Salem, Oregon, where it intends to mass-produce its humanoid robots called Digit. These robots are designed to act as companions to humans in warehouses and factories, having two legs, two arms, and the capability to maneuver freely. Aindrea Campbell, formerly Apple's senior director of iPad operations and an engineering manager at Ford, told CNBC that the factory should be able to reach a production capacity of 10,000 robots each year and will employ more than 500 people once fully built. Installing and testing the first production lines for the robots is the focus of the company now. According to Campbell, this is “not something where you flick a switch and suddenly turn it on. There's kind of a ramp-up process.” DCVC and Playground Global are among the venture investors that have bankrolled Agility Robotics, which has beaten rivals such as Tesla’s Optimus initiative by developing production prototype humanoid robots and establishing a factory to mass-produce them.
The robots are engineered to stay balanced and navigate environments with stairs and other impediments where the use of robotics is often limited. Powered by rechargeable lithium ion batteries, Digit can lift, sort, maneuver, and unload containers, as well as move materials onto or off of pallets or conveyor belts. Although its hands resemble a claw or mitten more than a human hand with five fingers, CEO and co-founder Damion Shelton has clarified that this is intentional in order to keep the robotics simple and practical.
Agility Robotics plans to use the robots for transporting materials within its factory and will supply its preferred partners with the robots in 2021. As for the potential of stealing jobs from people, Shelton has proposed that the technology could assist businesses with meeting customer demand while facing trouble recruiting and many workers retiring or leaving the industry. Investor Matt Ocko remarked that Digit should “fill millions of unmet roles that human beings don't want” while emphasizing the aim for the robots to be safe and autonomous “robotic co-workers.”
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