Agility

Enterprise, Robotics & AI

Agility Robotics Trims Workforce to Prioritize Commercialization Goals

Agility Robotics on Thursday confirmed that it has laid off a “small number” of employees. The well-funded Oregon-based firm says the job loss is part of a company-wide focus on commercialization efforts. Ultimately, however, those efforts were placed on the back burner, as the company shifted focus to understaffed warehouses. Two years ago this month, the company announced a $150 million Series B. Amazon notably participated in the round by way of its Industrial Innovation Fund. Last month at Modex, Agility showcased updates to Digit’s end effectors designed specifically for automotive manufacturing workflows.

Ava Patel
April 4, 2024

Enterprise, Robotics & AI

“Agility Robotics Appoints Forward-Thinking CEO Prioritizing Present Success”

Agility Robotics’ new CEO is ‘focused on the here and now’ The Digit-maker’s current and former CEOs discuss Amazon, Generative AI and last-mile deliveryThere was nothing else like Digit on the ProMat floor last year. This week, Agility named Microsoft veteran Peggy Johnson its second-ever CEO. They’re just focused on a handful of use cases that Digit can provide value for.”Perhaps the biggest difference between Agility and the growing army of humanoid robotics startups is its sizable head start. The firm was founded in 2015 as a spinoff of Hurst’s work on legged robotics at Oregon State University. While Agility isn’t explicitly looking to raise at the moment, the company says the possibility is always on the table.

Kira Kim
March 5, 2024

Robotics & AI

Leveraging Large Language Models for Interacting with Agility’s Humanoid Robots

I’ve spent much of the past year discussing generative AI and large language models with robotics experts. It’s become increasingly clear that these sorts of technologies are primed to revolutionize the way robots communicate, learn, look and are programmed. Well-funded Oregon-based startup Agility has been playing around with the tech for a while now using its bipedal robot, Digit. Agility notes, “Our innovation team developed this interactive demo to show how LLMs could make our robots more versatile and faster to deploy. MIT CSAIL’s Daniela Rus also recently told me, “It turns out that generative AI can be quite powerful for solving even motion planning problems.