Agility Robotics has started selling the humanoid robot Digit. The first two production robots were bought by Ford, which plans to use them in research projects for automated delivery of goods, according to a press release from Ford. Digit is based on the first Agility Robotics called Cassie, which consisted of two legs joined together. The new robot, unveiled in early 2019, features the classic design of a humanoid robot with two legs, two arms and a torso. In place of the head at Digit is a lidar that allows the robot to track obstacles around and complements the stereo cameras mounted on the torso.
Throughout 2019, the developers created new prototypes of the robot and demonstrated its new skills. For example, they showed that a robot is capable of carrying boxes, not only alone, but also together with another robot of the same type. In this case, the weight of the cargo can be up to 18 kilograms. Ford, which bought the first two production Digits, previously used this opportunity in its unmanned delivery project. The developers placed one of the early prototypes of the robot in the trunk of an unmanned vehicle and taught the machines to work in pairs: the robot can receive data from the lidar of the unmanned vehicle in real time and use it to plot a route to the door of the client's house, where the parcel must be left.
Agility Robotics did not disclose exactly how much the robot costs, but the company told The Verge that the price is six figures in dollars. In addition, the company estimates that the cost of operating the robot, taking into account its expected life, should be approximately $ 25 per hour. Until August 2019, Agility Robotics produced the Cassie robot, and then retooled production to create serial Digit robots. Nevertheless, the company's engineers continued to teach Cassie new skills.
For example, in November they showed how a robot mints a ball and at the same time maintains balance while standing on two legs. The developers said that the goal of this project is to create an algorithm for simultaneously performing two dynamic actions (balancing and chasing the ball), which can potentially be used in the Digit robot.
Grigory Kopiev