It’s not a flat-out refutation of the form factor, so much as an acknowledgement that — in spite of investor enthusiasm — it’s not the ideal tool for every job.
This week’s Modex supply chain show inAtlanta told its own story — one populated by very few humanoids.
A number of the players I spoke with continued to express skepticism around the widespread adoption of humanoid robots in the workplace.
I heard very few outright rejections of the humanoid form factor.
These instances, which now require human intervention, could be the ideal scenario for humanoids, whether operating autonomously or teleoperated, as in the case of Reflex, the other humanoid robotics firm present at Modex.
Naturally, I jumped at the opportunity to take Verve Motion’s SafeLift Exosuit for a spin.
You put it on over your shoulders and then snap yourself in with a pair of chest straps.
Next, another pair of soft straps are stretched around your thighs and Velcro-ed in place.
The thigh straps are connected to a pair of soft fabric cables that retract into the backpack with a bit of a yank.
Verve Motion sells SafeLift as part of a larger system featuring a wall of lockers/cubby holes used to store and charge the exosuits.
The loneliness of the robotic humanoid Humanoid robots are all the rage, but Agility’s Digit was a singular presence at this year’s Modex conferencePerhaps a few years from now, the halls of the Georgia World Congress Center will be peppered with humanoid robots the week of Modex.
A line of the bipedal robots were moving totes to a nearby conveyor belt at select times throughout the week.
This week in Atlanta, a rotating cast of eight Digits are working each day from show opening to close.
Agility is ramping up production volumes, with plans to hit “high double-digit” production of its bipedal robot by end of year.
This week at Modex, the company took the wraps off Agility Arc, deployment and fleet management software for Digit.
