Agility Robotics
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Robotics, engineering |
| Founded | 2015 |
| Founder | Jonathan Hurst, Damion Shelton, Mikhail Jones |
| Headquarters | Salem , United States |
Key people | Jonathan Hurst (founder) |
| Products | Humanoid robots (Digit, Cassie) |
| Owner | Private |
| Website | www |
Agility Robotics, Inc. is a privately owned engineering and robotics firm in the United States, focused on the development of humanoid robotic systems. Established in 2015 as a spin-off from Oregon State University, the company specializes in automation technologies centered around its humanoid robot named Digit.
History
Originating from the Dynamic Robotics Lab at Oregon State University, Agility Robotics was founded by Jonathan Hurst, a pioneer in dynamic stability and bipedal robot locomotion. The company’s founding team also includes Damion Shelton and Mikhail Jones.
Their first creation, Cassie, is a bipedal robot lacking an upper torso and sensory systems, introduced in 2016 as a platform for research purposes. Cassie achieved recognition by setting a Guinness World Record for the fastest 100-meter sprint by a bipedal robot.
In 2017, the company unveiled Digit, a full-scale humanoid robot equipped with arms and sensory perception, targeting academic and research markets. Ford Motor Company was among the initial adopters, employing Digit in last-mile delivery experiments alongside autonomous vehicles. By 2021, Digit’s applications expanded to include material handling within warehouse and logistics environments.
The most recent iteration of Digit was showcased at ProMat in 2023, a leading trade event for material handling. That same year, Agility Robotics launched RoboFab, its inaugural humanoid robotics manufacturing facility located in Salem, Oregon, with an annual production capacity of up to 10,000 units.
Toward the end of 2023, Agility announced collaborations with Amazon and GXO Logistics to implement Digit robots in distribution centers for order fulfillment operations. The partnership with GXO at their Spanx location resulted in the first-ever humanoid Robot-as-a-Service (RaaS) agreement in 2024, representing a pivotal advancement in the commercial deployment of humanoid robots within logistics sectors.