Agility Robotics, creator of the bipedal robot Digit, revealed that the company is opening RoboFab, a robot manufacturing facility in Salem, Oregon with the capability to produce more than 10,000 robots per year.
Initial construction of Agility’s 70,000 square foot robot factory began last year, and it is set to open later this year. Agility anticipates production capacity of hundreds of Digit robots in the first year, with the capability to scale to more than 10,000 robots per year. At full capacity, RoboFab will employ more than 500 workers in Salem, in addition to employees at Agility’s other locations. Digit also will work in the new factory, in a similar capacity to Agility’s customer sites, moving, loading, and unloading totes.
Digit is designed from the ground up to go where people go and do useful work, safely, in spaces designed for people. Because so many tasks are designed around human workflows, Digit’s human-centric design enables multi-purpose utility. Initial applications include bulk material handling within warehouses and distribution centres. With the opening of the new manufacturing facility, customers that are participating in the Agility Partner Program (APP) can expect delivery of the first Digits in 2024, with general market availability in 2025.
“The opening of our factory marks a pivotal moment in the history of robotics: the beginning of the mass production of commercial humanoid robots,” said Damion Shelton, Agility Robotics’ Co-Founder and CEO. “We built Digit to solve difficult problems in today’s workforce like injuries, burnout, high turnover, and unfillable labour gaps, with the ultimate vision of enabling humans to be more human. When you’re building new technology to make society better, the most important milestone is when you’re able to mass produce that technology at a scale where it can have a real, widespread impact.”
Agility Robotics COO Aindrea Campbell is leading the scaling of Agility’s manufacturing and corporate operations to meet the large commercial demand for Digit, including the launch of the new factory. With more than twenty years as a senior operations leader at companies including Ford and Apple, Aindrea co-led the transition from steel to aluminium on the F150 and rapidly scaled capacity as head of iPad operations during the pandemic.
“Not only are we building the world’s first factory for humanoid robots, but we’re doing so in the United States about 30 miles from our engineering centre which is fantastic for setting us up to scale quickly,” added Campbell. “By establishing RoboFab as a state-of-the-art manufacturing hub in Salem, Oregon, we are not only accelerating the development and deployment of advanced robotic systems, but also cultivating innovation and creating high-skilled job opportunities. With the capability to produce Digit at scale, we are poised to change the future of work for the better.”
