The newly designed Digit 5 humanoid standing at 5 feet, 11 inches tall features a re-engineered leg architecture capable of repeatedly hoisting 50-pound payloads, aligning with single-person lifting benchmarks set by the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration. This upgraded model drastically increases its vertical reach to 7.2 feet—exceeding the 5.5-foot threshold of the older Digit 4—allowing it to easily access storage shelving designed for average human employees. Operational efficiency is further boosted by a rapid-charging power cell that recharges in a mere nine minutes following 90 minutes of activity, empowering the machine to remain productive for exceeding 20 hours within a 24-hour cycle. Additionally, versatile tool attachments can be rapidly swapped out on its arm mechanisms, allowing the platform to execute dynamic tasks far beyond simple container transport.
Eliminating the requirement for segregated protective enclosures or physical dividing walls, this bipedal machine relies on an intricate array of multimodal perception instruments and artificial intelligence algorithms to navigate nearby personnel safely. Upon spotting a human from afar, the unit dynamically alters its course or pauses entirely, and can even lower itself into a seated position if a worker ventures too close. These spatial awareness tools empower the machine to assist with packing and pallet-stacking operations, momentarily pausing its workflow while employees exchange cargo pallets. In busy industrial facilities, “it’s not really practical to constrain the robot within a physical safety cage,” noted Pras Velagapudi, chief technology officer at Agility.
Driving the computing capabilities of the unit is Nvidia’s Thor IGX platform paired with Nvidia Halos for Robotics software, establishing an advanced foundation for functional safety applications. Speaking regarding the architecture, Velagapudi stated that “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,” emphasizing that “It’s really core to the compute of our product, and it’s part of the safety case that we’ve been putting together.” To monitor surrounding personnel, the machine relies on several specialized vision-oriented sensory tools. Development of these protective measures occurred concurrently with Agility’s contributions to ISO 25785-1, an emerging global benchmark for mobile industrial automation currently undergoing evaluation by 89 voting member nations.
As American and Chinese manufacturers race to expand their robotic fleets across diverse commercial domains, ensuring human protection remains a central technical hurdle. Addressing this universal challenge, Agility cofounder and Oregon State University scholar Jonathan Hurst characterized human hazard mitigation as a “blocker for everybody,” in the sector. Detailing their algorithmic approach to hazard prevention, Velagapudi explained to Ars that “The robot was designed with a complex safe motion system that can take a variety of different mitigations depending on exactly what sort
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