Agility Robotics has unveiled Digit 5, its first humanoid robot designed to work safely alongside humans without the physical cages or separation barriers typically required for industrial robots. When the robot detects a nearby person, it can autonomously move away, stand still to let them pass, or squat into a seated position if someone comes too close, using onboard vision-based sensors and AI to gauge proximity. This addresses what Agility co-founder Jonathan Hurst has called a "blocker for everybody" in the humanoid robotics industry, potentially opening up far wider use in warehouses and car factories as competition from US and Chinese firms intensifies.

Digit 5 will reach early customers in the first half of 2027 and become generally available by the end of that year, built at Agility's retooled RoboFab facility in Salem, Oregon. The robot runs on Nvidia's Thor IGX hardware with the Nvidia Halos for Robotics safety software stack, and Agility has been contributing to a forthcoming international safety standard, ISO 25785-1. Earlier Digit models have already logged over 65,000 working hours at sites including GXO, Schaeffler, Amazon and Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, with Agility having been first to deploy humanoid robots commercially full-time, at a GXO warehouse in Atlanta in 2024.