Having a robot that can take on that never-ending pile of laundry, from sorting to loading to adding detergent, to shifting said load to dryer, and folding and stacking, isn’t a reality yet, but there is promise.
A robot named Digit was able to sort colors and add the clothing items to a basket, taking Google’s Gemini voice command to action, That is a start, but the company behind Digit, Agility Robotics, sees its current usefulness in places far from the household laundry room. Digit is being used in warehouses across the country, to lift and stack boxes or put them on conveyor belts or in transport vehicles. It turns out that the aqua-green colored humanoid robot is quite adroit at such tasks.
Digit is much more than a sorter of socks, and that has raised concern about job displacement. But a handful of companies, such as GXO, a logistics company and Amazon, are already using Digit in warehouses, and for now they are working alongside humans.
“Digit can move, grasp and handle items in spaces and corners of a warehouse in novel ways. Its size and shape are well-suited for buildings that are designed for humans,” states Agility Robotics. In reference to Amazon’s use of Digit, the company states, “Both companies believe that there is a big opportunity to scale a mobile manipulator solution such as Digit, which can work collaboratively with employees and help support workplace safety.”
Digit is being used primarily, for now, in a task referred to as tote recycling, repetitively picking up and moving empty totes once inventory inside the containers has been picked out.
“Amazon is a company that is committed to making the work experience of their employees safer, easier, and less repetitive,” said Damion Shelton, co-founder and CEO of Agility Robotics. “When we announced our most recent version of Digit earlier this year, this is exactly the type of repetitive material handling deployment we had in mind; one that enables humans to be more human.”
Mr. Shelton has said repeatedly in webinars, tech conferences and other meetings and conferences that Digit has a place in the workplace, and not at the expense of humans.
“Supply chains are still feeling the aftereffects of the pandemic, and the demand for warehouse labor far exceeds available talent. Companies are turning to automation now more than ever to help mitigate future disruptions. With logistics labor issues such as high turnover, burnout, and injury continuing to rise, we believe Digit to be the future of work,” continued Shelton. “We look forward to Digit augmenting workforces, taking on the ‘dull, dirty, and dangerous’ tasks, and allowing people to focus on more creative and complex work. We like to think of Digit as enabling humans to be more human.”
Jonathan Hurst, the co-founder and chief technology officer for Agility Robotics said, “We’ve learned so much about how robots can partner with the human workforce and work naturally in human environments, and we can’t wait to see the positive impact that the new Digit will have in the world. When people and robots work together in logistics operations, working conditions improve for people, warehouse efficiency improves overall, the supply chain moves more smoothly – everybody wins.”
Another humanoid robot, Apollo, does much of the same type of work, lifting and stacking boxes. The 5’8” and 160 pound robot works around cars. On March 15, 2024, the company that makes Apollo, Apptronik, announced it had entered into a commercial agreement with Mercedes-Benz. In its pilot testing phases, Mercedes-Benz will utilize Apollo to bring parts to the production line for workers to assemble, and like Digit, Apollo will carry totes.
The addition of humanoid robots to factories and plants would allow organizations like Mercedes-Benz to deploy robotics that are optimized to perform in spaces that are designed for humans, thus avoiding full-scale facility redesigns that are built around robots rather than people.
In short, this approach centers on automating some physically demanding, repetitive and dull tasks for which it is increasingly hard to find reliable workers.
