Ford is first buyer of Agility Robotics bipedal Digit cobot
Oregon-based robotics company Agility Robotics has launched Digit - a bipedal robot designed to work alongside humans for commercial sale - and automotive giant Ford has become its first customer, receiving the first two robots off the production line.
The partnership between the two companies continues the existing partnership which is looking at ways to help commercial vehicle customers, including autonomous vehicle manufacturers, make warehouse operations and delivery more affordable and efficient.
The key applications which the Agility-Ford partnership will focus on for further exploration include indoor applications, first-mile logistics and last 50-feet delivery.
Research also will focus on how Ford's commercial vehicles and Digit "talk" to each other and their surroundings through advanced connectivity technologies. For example, Ford's connected vehicles can continually update cloud-based maps that can be shared with Digit so it doesn't have to recreate the same type of information.
When Digit is part of a package delivery service, the communication channel will also provide delivery specific information such as where a customer prefers packages to be left, or other individual package delivery needs. This communication channel also allows Digit to ask for help if something unexpected is encountered.
"As online retailing continues growing, we believe robots will help our commercial customers build stronger businesses by making deliveries more efficient and affordable for all of us." said Ken Washington, vice president, Ford Research and Advanced Engineering, and Chief Technology Officer.
"We learned a lot this year working with Agility, now we can accelerate our exploratory work with commercial Digit robots," he continued.
Agility Robotics has been extensively testing Digit since the first prototype was unveiled in May last year, as well as refining the design and adding features to be ready for production and sale. Upgrades and improvements include more advanced feet that allow Digit to balance on one foot or carefully navigate obstacles, new sensors to perceive and map the world for robot navigation, and customer-ready, powerful onboard computer hardware.
"We're excited about the technical capabilities and advanced legged mobility of Digit," said Dr. Jonathan Hurst, CTO of Agility. "Videos can show a solid proof of concept - but this robot is ready to go out in the world in the hands of customers, and start to really explore pragmatic use cases."
From August 2017 to July 2019, Agility Robotics was selling its breakthrough robot, Cassie - the predecessor to Digit - as a bipedal research platform. The second half of 2019 was spent transitioning production over to Digit.
"Digit represents a major milestone for Agility," said Dr. Damion Shelton, CEO of Agility. "For the first time, a full humanoid robot - with both mobility and manipulation capabilities - will be available for customer applications in a wide variety of industries, both indoor and outdoor. We look forward to showing off our work on both logistics and non-logistics tasks in the coming months."
Digit is designed to walk upright without energy waste and is able to traverse the same types of environment that humans do. The robot's design allows it to fold itself up for practical storage in a vehicle. When the vehicle arrives at its destination, Digit can be deployed to grab a package from a vehicle and carry out the last step of the delivery process.
Should Digit encounter any unexpected obstacles it can send an image back to the vehicle to leverage more computing power. The vehicle could even send that information into the cloud and request help from other systems to enable Digit to navigate, providing multiple levels of assistance that help keep the robot light and nimble.
Digit's light weight also helps ensure it has a long run time, which is essential for delivery businesses that operate continuously through the business day.
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