Inside the factory where robots could eventually build themselves

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Inside the factory where robots could eventually build themselves

Inside the factory where robots could eventually build themselves

About 30 miles from the company’s headquarters in Oregon, Agility Robotics has built “RoboFab,” a facility designed to scale up the production of its bipedal robot, Digit.

It is the first factory dedicated to building humanoid robots, according to the privately held company, which has already begun testing Digit with high-profile clients like Amazon and GXO Logistics.

“It’s been in production for about a year. The capacity of this 70,000 square foot facility is 10,000 units a year. We will roll up to that over the next couple of years,” said Peggy Johnson, CEO of Agility Robotics, in an interview with CNBC Tech: The Edge.

Digit was designed to take up repetitive and mundane manufacturing tasks, helping to close the labor gap in the logistics sector.

“There’s over a million jobs in the logistics area alone that are going unfilled. Robots like Digit can step in and take those tasks off their hands,” Johnson said.

“What we’re seeing is this is typically a part of the job that they don’t like. We can offload that, free up that human to have more cycles in their day, to learn new skills,” she added.

Agility has raised $190 million since it was first founded in 2015. It launched the fourth version of Digit in October 2024 and is already working on the next iteration. 

“In the next generation, we will incorporate what’s known as collaborative safety, where you can have humanoids working alongside humans. We’ll have incorporated AI more fully, and of course, we’ll have the ability to have Digit recharge itself through our stand,” Johnson said.

Embedded with artificial intelligence, as well as large language and robotics foundation models, Digit’s fifth generation will be trained in new skills, such as following commands throughout the day and performing tasks without human interference.

The end goal, according to Johnson, is for the robots to be able to build future versions of themselves.

Watch the video above for an up-close look at Digit and the RoboFab factory. 

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