Agility Robotics has introduced Digit 5, the next generation of its humanoid robot for industrial automation, with higher payloads, longer daily productivity, and safer operations.

Digit 5 is the companies first humanoid engineered for "cooperatively safe work at scale," meaning the robot is designed to operate in closer proximity to people without relying on the same physical barriers commonly used around traditional industrial automation.

The launch builds on several years of commercial deployments for Agility's previous Digit platform. In a September 15 press release, the company said Digit 4 has logged more than 65,000 operational hours across customer sites in North America, including GXO, Schaeffler, Amazon, and Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada.

What Changed With Digit 5

Digit 5 brings a redesigned hardware platform meant to move beyond narrower tote-handling jobs and into broader facility workflows.

Agility says the robot can repeatedly lift up to 50 pounds, or 22.7 kilograms, using a new leg design powered by proprietary cycloidal actuator technology. The company also lists a 5-foot-11-inch height, a 284-pound weight, and a maximum reach of 7.2 feet, giving Digit 5 a human-scale footprint for warehouse and manufacturing environments built around people.

The charging system is another major upgrade. Agility says Digit 5 has a 90-minute battery runtime and can recharge in nine minutes, producing a 10:1 run-to-charge ratio. That does not mean the robot runs for 20 hours on a single charge; rather, Agility says repeated work-and-charge cycles can support more than 20 hours of productive work in a 24-hour period.

Digit 5 also introduces swappable grippers with ISO-standard mounting flanges, allowing the robot's end effectors to be changed for different jobs. Agility says that will help expand the robot from tote movement into tasks such as depalletizing, machine tending, kitting, sequencing, quality inspection, and outbound palletizing.

Why Cooperative Safety Matters

The central message of the Digit 5 launch is safety. Industrial robots often require cages, marked-off zones, or other barriers to keep people away from moving machines. Agility is trying to make Digit 5 useful in more flexible environments by combining human detection, motion supervision, and signaling systems that communicate what the robot is doing.

According to the company, Digit 5 uses multiple sensor technologies and proprietary AI algorithms to detect people nearby. Depending on the situation, the robot can avoid a person, stop, or assume a seated position. Agility also says an independent safety controller supervises the robot's response when someone gets too close, while visual and audio cues signal motion intent to workers in the area.

The company is also pairing the platform with NVIDIA's Halos for Robotics infrastructure, using NVIDIA IGX Thor and Halos Core as part of the safety architecture. Agility said it is contributing to emerging safety standards for humanoids and dynamically stable mobile robots, including ANSI/A3 TR R15.108 and ISO 25785-1.

If a humanoid can safely operate around workers, conveyors, autonomous mobile robots, warehouse systems, and production equipment, it becomes easier to apply one platform across multiple workflows instead of building a custom automation setup for each task. With early access expected in the first half of 2027 and general availability targeted by the end of 2027, that remains the goal.