The loneliness of humanoid robots

maybe a few In a few years, the halls of the Georgia World Congress Center will be filled with humanoid robots during Modex Week. However, in 2024, Digit is in a league of its own at the supply chain show. This proves that Agility is ahead of competitors such as Figure, Tesla, 1X and Apptronik. This time last year, Digit hosted an industrial automation coming-out party at Modex, the Chicago version of the conference. An array of bipedal robots move handbags to a nearby conveyor belt at specific times of the week.

This week in Atlanta, the eight-figure cast is working from start to finish of the show every day. This time, however, the blue and silver robots are doing something different. The demonstration showed line-side replenishment and tote retrieval using flow racks designed specifically for automotive manufacturing. Agility told TechCrunch that the company is currently working with automotive customers but has not yet revealed any names.

As we all know, Ford was one of the first backers of Agility, announcing the partnership as early as CES 2020. Ultimately, plans to use Digit for last-mile delivery fell through, as the company instead focused on near-term warehouse staffing issues. That proved to be a shrewd move as post-pandemic labor force data has yet to recover. Former Agility CEO Damion Shelton told me last week that the last mile was still being considered, but there was enough focus on warehouses and manufacturing to keep the company busy.

Building out the senior executive team has been an important part of the company’s growth over the past 12 months. Co-founders Sheldon and Jonathan Hurst have taken on the roles of executive and technology officer, respectively, as president and chief robotics officer. A week ago today, former Magic Leap CEO Peggy Johnson took over as CEO from Shelton. Last year, the company appointed Fetch founder and CEO Melonee Wise as chief technology officer and former Apple and Ford executive Aindrea Campbell as chief operating officer.

The leadership changes signal a greater emphasis on commercialization. They also put agility in a rare position among top robotics companies, with five of nine C-suite positions held by women.

Agility is ramping up production and plans to reach “high double digits” of its bipedal robots by the end of the year. This week, the company unveiled Agility Arc, its Digit deployment and fleet management software, at Modex.

“This automation platform has all the features you would expect from a fleet management system, including battery, charging management, workflow management and robot tasking,” Wise told TechCrunch. “But it also has the other aspects needed to deploy and configure the system and monitor and support the system remotely. It’s a single management platform that basically lets you do everything related to managing a set of numbers.”

Johnson, who oversaw Magic Leap’s faltering transition to the enterprise, said the new enterprise software gave her confidence that her new company was on better footing than her previous one.

“When I learned about the new cloud-based automation system, what was really encouraging was that it was a sign of the company’s maturity,” she said. “It’s not just a device, it’s something that can be integrated. So it’s often [Johnson’s former employer] Microsoft, this will be a stumbling block. There will be some siled system here that doesn’t integrate with all the other systems and doesn’t provide the value it should. So the fact that it can be integrated with WMS systems and other systems that the company already uses is a big burden for them. “

Image Source: Brian Hitt

For Johnson, Modex has been a rich learning experience. She spoke to us last week in Japan, where she recently ran the Tokyo Marathon. She flew back to the U.S. over the weekend specifically to see firsthand the supply chain/logistics world she now finds herself in. “I want to make sure that I’m here not only to see the customers, but also to see the environment in which the equipment works. I’m going to spend a lot of time today walking around and immersing myself in it.”

As CEO, Johnson’s main pitch is rapid return on investment. This is largely because Digit can be implemented via the RaaS (Robotics as a Service) model, which has become an increasingly popular way to convince companies to take the step. Customers can now try these systems without having to worry about large upfront costs.

It’s these customers that ultimately shape Digit’s future. The model on the floor showing off the car’s workflow has a new pair of end effectors. This figure differs from the flippers the company showed off in that it has four fingers on each hand, with two pairs of hooked fingers facing in opposite directions. However, it’s not a deft move operation. Instead, it’s designed to do what the Digit has always done: transport handbags.

However, the suitcase here is quite wide (as is customary for car production lines) and the robot cannot hug it with its arms on either side. Instead, the effector grabs the front of the handbag. This method also provides a more stable grip on the box, which often has heavy, unrestrained objects rolling around inside it.

In the near future, Wise envisions a version of Digit in which the end effectors can be replaced as needed.

“When you look specifically at end effectors, the existing technology is about 60 years old,” she said. “all [Modex], if you look around, all these robot arms have different end effectors. This is something easy to understand. There is something called an “end-of-arm tool.” are interchangeable. As a product, our goal is to have replaceable end-of-arm tools and eventually make it an automated process. “

Shelton noted that this might be seen as a mockery of some humanoid robotics competitions, “but what’s interesting is that 0% of the solutions were five-finger, 27-degree-of-freedom hands.” He added, “Some of our competitors It has been publicly stated that their use of five-fingered hands is basically a branding exercise.”

As for competitive focus, Wise believes Agility’s peers should focus on security — a huge issue when introducing new technology into a warehouse environment. “As an industry, we need to collectively clarify our safety story,” she said. “As an industry we need to come together and decide what the safety norms are.”

Johnson added that the company needs to focus on the task at hand. “Focus on the here and now and what you can do,” she said. “Everyone needs a roadmap, but stay focused and prove it.”