Agility Robotics Inc. this week announced a partnership with Ricoh USA Inc., a global service-delivery organization. The company said Ricoh will help it expand its customer-support capabilities throughout North America, better preparing it for larger deployments of its bipedal mobile manipulation robot, Digit.
The agreement extends Agility’s support system through Ricoh’s Service Advantage program and provides additional resources for its end users. The service provider said its lifecycle management program enables companies of all sizes to expand their footprint and services, enter new regions and markets, implement best practices, and reduce costs.
Investment in robotics and automation could account for a third of capital spending, according to McKinsey. Its survey found that many companies want full-service implementation models.
“We expect our exclusive and differentiated partnership will accelerate Agility’s growth potential and ability to scale by facilitating technology adoption and support within their service promise for the growing number of companies looking to automate their operations,” Jim Kirby, vice president of Service Advantage for Ricoh North America, told Automated Warehouse.
Ricoh to support Digit robot, Agility Arc cloud platform
“Partnering with Ricoh helps us to provide expert support, including service and maintenance for Digit and Agility Arc, Agility’s cloud automation platform for deploying and managing Digit fleets,” Julia Gaynor, head of public relations at Agility, told The Robot Report.
Agility Robotics described Digit as “a multi-purpose, human-centric robot” designed it to work safely in human spaces and help with a variety of repetitive tasks in logistics. The Corvallis, Ore.-based company said it designed Agility Arc to simplify the deployment lifecycle, from facility mapping and workflow definition to operational management and troubleshooting.
Digit won the 2024 Robot of the Year as part of the RBR50 Robotics Innovation Awards. Agility Robotics received the recognition for being one of the first humanoid developers to put its system in commercial trials.
Digit to continue working during transition
Agility Robotics’ partnership with Ricoh follows a series of partnership and customer deployment news as Agility builds out a support system and puts Digit to work. In June, the company announced a multi-year agreement with GXO Logistics Inc. to deploy the robot in its logistics operations.
“Ricoh is currently providing oversight, training and support to Agility personnel servicing GXO and with this new partnership will transition to assume all operational activity by year’s end,” Kirby said.
With GXO, a small fleet of Digit robots is at work in a Spanx facility in Georgia. The logistics provider has been paying Agility under a robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) model. The partners have shown Digit picking up totes from 6 River Systems‘ Chuck autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) and placing them onto conveyors.
Agility hasn’t slowed down on its innovation plans since landing this job. The company said it hopes to release the next generation of Digit this fall. Its lifting capacity will increase from 35 to 50 lb. (15.8 to 22.6 kg), and battery life will be improved from its current eight-hour span.
Amazon has also tested Digit and invested in Agility Robotics. However, the details of that relationship and Amazon’s tests of Digit remain murky.
“Our relationship with GXO is the only one we have officially announced to date, but we have a number of customers in stealth mode,” said Gaynor. “Demand for Digit has only continued to increase, and we have a robust customer pipeline, following a number of successful pilots with new customers in recent months.”
Other humanoid developers play catch-up
While Agility Robotics might have the most deployments under its belt, it certainly isn’t the only humanoid robotic developer in the market.
Figure AI is close at Agility’s heels. Last month, the company completed a two-week pilot at a BMW plant in Spartanburg, S.C. There, the Figure 02 robot successfully fitted sheet metal parts into precise fittings that were then assembled as part of a car chassis (see video below).
In April, Boston Dynamics retired its older version of Atlas and announced an electric version of the robot. That company hasn’t announced any official deployments for the humanoid yet, but it has shown off Atlas’ increased flexibility and strength.
In addition, GXO is testing Apptronik’s Apollo humanoid, which was also tested by Mercedes-Benz. Apollo is 5 ft., 8 in. (172.7 cm.) tall, can carry 55 lb. (24.9 kg), and uses swappable batteries for extended runtimes, according to Apptronik.
Despite all of these humanoid tests, Agility Robotics remains the only company with publicly announced, paid deployments.
Other humanoid developers are taking the robot out of the warehouse and instead building humanoids for the home. 1X Technologies last month unveiled the NEO Beta prototype as it prepares for pilot deployments in select homes later this year.