Agility’s new humanoid robot will stop, squat to avoid harming human coworkers

Agility 新款人形机器人将通过停止、蹲下动作避免伤害人类同事

Agility Robotics has debuted its first humanoid robot engineered to work safely near humans without risking harm to flesh-and-blood coworkers. Such safety features could unlock many more opportunities to use such robots inside warehouses and automotive factories—all without requiring isolated robot work cells and physical separation barriers. Agility Robotics 推出了其首款人形机器人，该机器人专为在人类附近安全工作而设计，不会对血肉之躯的同事造成伤害。这些安全功能有望在仓库和汽车工厂内解锁更多应用场景，且无需设置隔离的工作单元或物理屏障。

When Agility’s new Digit 5 robot detects a person at a distance, it can autonomously take precautions, like moving to avoid the person or standing still so the person can pass by without getting closer. If a person is getting into close proximity with Digit 5, the robot can even choose to squat and assume a seated position. 当 Agility 的新款 Digit 5 机器人远距离探测到人时，它可以自主采取预防措施，例如移动以避开行人，或原地站立让行人通过，避免靠近。如果有人非常接近 Digit 5，机器人甚至可以选择蹲下并保持坐姿。

“The robot was designed with a complex safe motion system that can take a variety of different mitigations depending on exactly what sort of human presence is detected,” Pras Velagapudi, chief technology officer at Agility, told Ars. “该机器人设计有一套复杂的安全运动系统，可以根据探测到的人类存在形式，采取多种不同的缓解措施，”Agility 首席技术官 Pras Velagapudi 在接受 Ars 采访时表示。

Customers can expect to gain early access to the Digit 5 within the first half of 2027, with the robot becoming generally available by the end of that year, according to Agility’s announcement today. Agility has been retooling its RoboFab facility in Salem, Oregon, to produce its newest humanoid robot. 根据 Agility 今日发布的公告，客户预计可在 2027 年上半年获得 Digit 5 的早期使用权，该机器人将于同年年底全面上市。Agility 一直在对其位于俄勒冈州塞勒姆的 RoboFab 工厂进行改造，以生产其最新的人形机器人。

Agility’s leadership has consistently talked about safety as a crucial constraining factor in putting humanoid robots to work, despite being one of the humanoid robotics industry’s early movers. The robotics company, headquartered in Salem, became the first to deploy humanoid robots in full-time commercial operations at a GXO warehouse in Atlanta in 2024. 尽管 Agility 是人形机器人行业的先行者之一，但其领导层始终强调，安全性是将人形机器人投入工作的关键制约因素。这家总部位于塞勒姆的机器人公司于 2024 年成为首家在亚特兰大 GXO 仓库实现人形机器人全职商业化运营的企业。

Since that time, earlier versions of the Digit robot have accumulated more than 65,000 hours working at warehouses and factories across North America. Clients that have piloted or deployed the Digit robots include GXO, Schaeffler, Amazon, and Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada. 自那时起，早期版本的 Digit 机器人已在北美各地的仓库和工厂累计工作超过 65,000 小时。曾试点或部署过 Digit 机器人的客户包括 GXO、舍弗勒 (Schaeffler)、亚马逊 (Amazon) 和丰田加拿大汽车制造公司 (Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada)。

The competition to deploy humanoid robots has only intensified in recent years, with US and Chinese companies racing to scale up production and put the robots to work in a growing array of workplaces. But the safety issue has been a “blocker for everybody,” said Jonathan Hurst, cofounder of Agility Robotics and a robotics researcher at Oregon State University, in a previous interview with Ars. 近年来，部署人形机器人的竞争愈演愈烈，美国和中国的公司竞相扩大生产规模，并将机器人投入到越来越多的工作场所中。但 Agility Robotics 联合创始人、俄勒冈州立大学机器人研究员 Jonathan Hurst 在此前接受 Ars 采访时表示，安全问题一直是“阻碍所有人的瓶颈”。

The robotic safety hardware and software

机器人安全硬件与软件

The expected availability of the Digit 5 robot in 2027 provides a more “granular” approach to robotic safety around humans as opposed to simply turning the robot completely off and on again, Velagapudi told Ars. He also described Agility’s robot fleet management system as being able to interface with customers’ external workplace safety systems. Velagapudi 对 Ars 表示，预计于 2027 年推出的 Digit 5 机器人提供了一种更“精细”的人机安全处理方式，而不是简单地将机器人完全关闭再重启。他还介绍称，Agility 的机器人车队管理系统能够与客户的外部工作场所安全系统进行对接。

Digit 5 uses AI algorithms along with an onboard set of multimodal sensors to detect people in its proximity, Velagapudi said. Although he declined to reveal exactly what types of sensors the robot uses to monitor nearby humans, he described the array as consisting of “a few different types of vision-based sensors.” Velagapudi 表示，Digit 5 使用 AI 算法和一套机载多模态传感器来探测附近的人。虽然他拒绝透露机器人具体使用哪种传感器来监测附近的人类，但他描述该阵列由“几种不同类型的视觉传感器”组成。

Agility’s newest humanoid robot uses Nvidia’s Thor IGX hardware, which provides AI compute for robots and medical devices, along with integrating the Nvidia Halos for Robotics system that provides a software stack for robotics safety applications. Agility 的最新人形机器人采用了英伟达 (Nvidia) 的 Thor IGX 硬件，该硬件为机器人和医疗设备提供 AI 计算能力，并集成了提供机器人安全应用软件栈的 Nvidia Halos for Robotics 系统。

“Digit is equipped with this Thor IGX, and we’re one of the first adopters to be taking that through to a functionally safe application using that technology,” Velagapudi explained. “It’s really core to the compute of our product, and it’s part of the safety case that we’ve been putting together.” “Digit 配备了 Thor IGX，我们是首批利用该技术实现功能安全应用的企业之一，”Velagapudi 解释道，“它是我们产品计算的核心，也是我们正在构建的安全案例的一部分。”

Agility developed Digit 5’s safety features while also participating in a working group to develop an international safety standard for industrial mobile robots through the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). That standard, known as ISO 25785-1, is under committee review and will eventually be put to a vote by the international organization’s 89 voting nation members. Agility 在开发 Digit 5 安全功能的同时，还参与了一个工作组，通过国际标准化组织 (ISO) 制定工业移动机器人的国际安全标准。该标准被称为 ISO 25785-1，目前正处于委员会审查阶段，最终将由该国际组织的 89 个投票成员国进行投票表决。

Unleashing the upgraded robot

释放升级版机器人的潜力

Beyond being designed to operate safely around humans, Digit 5 also features an upgraded leg design compared to its predecessor that allows it to repeatedly lift up to 50 pound loads. Such capability makes the robot suitable to cover all single-person lift tasks as defined by the workplace safety regulations of the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration. 除了设计上能在人类周围安全运行外，Digit 5 的腿部设计也较前代产品进行了升级，使其能够重复搬运重达 50 磅的货物。这种能力使该机器人能够胜任美国职业安全与健康管理局 (OSHA) 工作场所安全法规所定义的所有单人搬运任务。

The new humanoid robot also has a battery capable of lasting 90 minutes on a single charge that can recharge in just nine minutes. That enables Digit 5 to perform more than 20 hours of work within a 24-hour period by spending most of its time operating rather than charging. 这款新的人形机器人还配备了电池，单次充电可续航 90 分钟，且仅需 9 分钟即可充满。这使得 Digit 5 在 24 小时内能够工作超过 20 小时，大部分时间都在运行而非充电。

Compared to the older Digit 4 robot, Digit 5 stands taller, at 5 feet, 11 inches, and has the capability to reach heights of up to 7.2 feet, compared to Digit 4’s reach of 5.5 feet. That makes Digit 5 better able to reach the same shelves that average-size adults can reach. 与旧款 Digit 4 机器人相比，Digit 5 身高更高，达到 5 英尺 11 英寸（约 1.8 米），触及高度可达 7.2 英尺（约 2.2 米），而 Digit 4 的触及高度为 5.5 英尺（约 1.67 米）。这使得 Digit 5 能够更好地触及普通成年人所能触及的货架。

Digit 5 also comes with a swappable gripper design that enables new hands or “end-effectors” to be quickly installed for various manipulation tasks. Combined with new AI-based skills, the swappable end-effectors allow Digit 5 to handle a wider variety of workplace tasks beyond just moving around totes filled with items. Digit 5 还采用了可更换的抓取器设计，能够快速安装新的手部或“末端执行器”以执行各种操作任务。结合新的基于 AI 的技能，这些可更换的末端执行器使 Digit 5 能够处理比搬运装满物品的料箱更广泛的工作场所任务。

The humanoid robot’s ability to work safely around people will allow it to help stack and package goods onto pallets and pause while a person swaps out the pallets, or safely move through aisles where people may also be working, Velagapudi said. In those scenarios, “it’s not really practical to constrain the robot within a physical safety cage,” he said. Velagapudi 表示，该人形机器人在人类周围安全工作的能力，将使其能够协助将货物堆叠和包装到托盘上，并在人类更换托盘时暂停，或者在人类可能也在工作的过道中安全穿行。在这些场景中，“将机器人限制在物理安全笼内并不切实际，”他说。

Having a humanoid robot with such “cooperative safety” features enables the robotic workforce to get productive work done in the same space as humans while operating at a safe distance, Velagapudi said. Once this is proven in commercial deployments, it could lay the foundation for the next big step of enabling “collaborative safety,” where the hu… Velagapudi 表示，拥有这种“协作安全”功能的人形机器人，使机器人劳动力能够在与人类相同的空间内完成高效工作，同时保持安全距离。一旦这在商业部署中得到验证，它将为实现“协同安全”这一下一个重大步骤奠定基础，届时人类……