Agility Robotics, creator of the general-purpose robot Digit, announced that Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada (TMMC) signed a commercial agreement with the company. After a successful pilot, TMMC, the company's largest factory outside of Japan, plans to deploy Agility’s robot to support employees with manufacturing, supply chain and logistics operations.
“Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada has long been a leader in automotive manufacturing innovation,” said Tim Hollander, president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, in a statement. “After evaluating a number of robots, we are excited to deploy Digit to improve the team member experience and further increase operational efficiency in our manufacturing facilities.”
In addition to the work Digit is doing today, Agility and TMMC will continue to assess further use cases where robots and AI could help augment automotive production. The companies will explore how automating some extremely repetitive and physically taxing tasks commonly found on automotive manufacturing production lines could reduce strain and increase safety for employees, freeing them to do more value-added work in the production facility.
TMMC joins a others companies deploying including GXO, Schaeffler and Amazon in deploying Agility's robotics.
“Toyota is one of the premier companies in the world; one with a long history of innovation and success, so it’s a privilege to join forces to integrate humanoid robotic solutions like Digit into automotive production,” said Peggy Johnson, Agility Robotics’ CEO. “I look forward to continuing our work with Toyota to identify all the ways that Digit can help the employees working at their production facilities. With our next generation of Digit, we will be the first company to deliver the first cooperatively safe humanoid robot to work alongside people, allowing companies like Toyota to scale their use of humanoids well beyond what is possible today.”
Agility’s solutions include Digit, a general-purpose humanoid robot made for logistics and manufacturing work, and Agility Arc, a cloud automation platform for deploying and managing fleets of Digits. Amidst a global labor shortage, Digit can do a variety of monotonous, procss-automated tasks in manufacturing operations that are often difficult for companies to fill and keep filled. Agility’s human-centric automation solutions are designed to integrate seamlessly into manufacturing facilities without the need for costly retrofits or overhauls. Additionally, Digit can continually learn tasks and adapt to new manufacturing workflows, using AI to accelerate its commercial capabilities.
