Agility Robotics

What it does

Agility makes Digit, a two-legged humanoid robot for material handling ^[1]. Agility says Digit loads and unloads totes from conveyors or mobile robots, stacks empty totes, and moves parts between carts and workstations ^[1]. Agility frames the safety case as removing people from repetitive heavy lifting that leads to injury ^[1]. The hazard addressed is musculoskeletal strain from repeated lifts, but Agility has published no injury or ergonomic data from deployments.

A walking robot adds hazards. Agility's merger filing lists falls, collisions and unintended movements as risks that could injure workers ^[5]. Agility says Digit has a dedicated safety PLC, an on-robot emergency stop, a category 1 controlled stop that brakes to a stable position, and Fail Safe over EtherCAT signalling, and is programmed to fall predictably and brace with its arms ^[1]. Digit 5, announced in September 2026, adds multi-sensor person detection, an independent safety controller, and light and sound cues showing where it will move ^[2]. Agility calls this "cooperatively safe": work near people without fixed barriers ^[2].

Who it is for

Agility targets distribution, logistics and manufacturing sites with repetitive tote or bin moves ^{[1] [4]}. Sites need a dedicated charging circuit and industrial Wi-Fi ^[1]. Today Digit works inside a restricted-access workcell with perimeter barriers ^[1]. Agility forecasts Digit 5 early access in the first half of 2027 and general availability by the end of 2027 ^[2].

How it is deployed

Agility offers a robots-as-a-service subscription or purchase ^[1]. The S-4 filed with the SEC gives illustrative unit economics, not a price list: $8,500 per robot per month plus about $25,000 to deploy, or about $200,000 per robot to buy ^[5]. Robots connect to Agility Arc, a cloud fleet platform that also handles over-the-air updates, remote diagnostics and teleoperation ^[5]. Agility says Arc links to warehouse management, warehouse execution and manufacturing execution systems ^[2], and it announced a Manhattan Active Warehouse Management integration in 2024 ^[7]. Agility says Digit processes camera data on the robot, sends only health and diagnostic data to Arc, and encrypts data in transit and at rest ^[2]. The S-4 says Agility is still working toward SOC 2 readiness ^[5]. In October 2026 Agility and FORT Robotics signed a memorandum of understanding on a safety pendant with emergency stop, on-robot communications and a bridge to site safety systems ^{[8] [9]}.

Agility says an OSHA-recognized Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory (NRTL) field-evaluated Digit at one customer fulfillment site in November 2025 against standards including ISO 10218, ANSI/RIA R15.08, ISO 13849 and ISO 12100 ^[3]. Agility describes this as site-specific, not a product certification, and has not named the laboratory or published the report ^[3]. Its Digit 5 release calls the standards "administered by" OSHA ^[2]; under OSHA's NRTL program, OSHA recognizes private laboratories, which certify products ^[14]. Agility says it contributes to ISO 25785-1 and ANSI/A3 TR R15.108, both still under development ^{[1] [5] [12]}.

Notable public customers and coverage

Agility Robotics, Inc. is a Delaware company based in Salem, Oregon, founded in 2015 ^[5]. The S-4 reports a 2025 net loss of $138.1 million ^[5]. In June 2026 Agility agreed to go public by merging with Churchill Capital Corp XI at a $2.5 billion pre-money value ^[4]. Agility says Digit has logged more than 65,000 hours across nine customer facilities and has over $300 million of Digit 5 orders ^[4]; the filing says those orders come from one customer and depend on milestones ^[5].

Customer lists vary: the merger release names Schaeffler, GXO, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada and Mercado Libre ^[4], the Digit 5 release names Amazon instead of Mercado Libre ^[2], and the S-4 names all five ^[5]. Agility says Digit moved over 100,000 totes at GXO's Flowery Branch, Georgia site ^[6], as trade press reported ^[10]. Humanoids Daily, citing Wall Street Journal reporting, described a Digit at Schaeffler in South Carolina working inside a Plexiglas enclosure ^[11]. Fortune reported GXO is piloting humanoids from five providers ^[13]. An Omdia analyst told TechTarget that humanoid AI safety needs stronger verification frameworks ^[12].

Things to ask in an evaluation

• Can we see the NRTL report, the laboratory's name and the scope tested?
• How often has Digit fallen per operating hour across the fleet, and what fall zone should we plan for?
• Which Digit 5 safety functions carry an ISO 13849 performance level, and who verified them?
• What ergonomic baseline and injury data will show strain moved off workers?

Our take

Strengths

• Several years of paid operation, with a published tote count at a named GXO site ^{[4] [6]}.
• Documented safety functions and fall behavior, plus a site NRTL field evaluation against named robot standards ^{[1] [3]}.
• Pricing model and illustrative unit economics disclosed in an SEC filing ^[5].

Watch-outs

• The NRTL evaluation is site-specific and unpublished, and the humanoid standards Agility cites are drafts ^{[3] [12]}.
• Barrier-free work depends on Digit 5, forecast for general availability by the end of 2027 ^[2].
• No security certification yet, one customer holds the Digit 5 order book, and outcomes are vendor counts, not injury data ^{[5] [6]}.

Best fit: Large distribution or manufacturing sites with repetitive tote moves that can run a fenced pilot now and want to assess work near people once Digit 5 ships.