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WillAdams 5 hours ago [-]
>It needed to achieve the lifting limits recommended under the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health guidelines for human workers, which include repeatedly lifting 23-kg bins and reaching shelves 1.75 meters high. Digit is designed to perform tasks like these for 20 hours a day—something no human can do.
I think that rather underestimates what people can and have done (cue John Henry story).
I worked in an Amazon warehouse for two different stints:
and it was rather like a gym membership which I couldn't skip out on (glances at exercise equipment cluttering living space) and during which I could ponder life choices and consequences while wishing there was a soundtrack/music.
That said, this sort of thing, LLMs/AIs and data centers, and so forth feel like a perfect storm leading up to singularity (as envisioned by some optimistic science fiction authors) or something far worse, cue Marshall Brain's novella "Manna":
This is exactly why I didn't want to work for Agile when I was invited. This stuff is going to get crushed in the market by cheap AGVs and good systems integration.
It was very sad to watch the ambitions of excited robotics researchers turn towards making what are essentially digital slaves. I am not saying that manufacturing or logistics couldn't, or even shouldn't be automated. But the true factories and distribution centers of the future will have to fundamentally rethink what productivity and coordinated work looks like, including having a greater imagination about work and employment.
Mimicking the human form inelegantly is not going to cut it, let alone reduce labor costs. I am all for the research, but the dream of replacing bin pickers with humanoid robots is cynical and hopeless.
margalabargala 1 hours ago [-]
> making what are essentially digital slaves
The distinction between these and a laptop or a car is just form factor, from a "slavery" point of view.
This is like calling a child's doll a cloth slave.
elil17 1 hours ago [-]
I once again wonder why companies are building bipedal robots. Is it just for show?
If you want to build a general purpose industrial robot, surely a wheeled base with arms/hands is a better starting point. Cheaper, much easier to increase payload weight, and no risk of having it fall over onto someone.
If you want to build something which can navigate general terrain, then surely a robot dog is a better solution.
90% of use cases don't need both, and once you've solved building a general purpose industrial robot I promise you won't have trouble finding funding to add legs to it.
bilsbie 50 minutes ago [-]
A drop in replacement for a human in the very long tail of useful tasks is worth a lot.
And it’s a winner take all market as the learning curve and efficiencies of scale will drive down the cost for the most general purpose form of robot.
FLeXMurphy 42 minutes ago [-]
> Is it just for show?
No, and they aren't just bipedal. It is for replacing humans.
bambax 4 hours ago [-]
> filling the need for labor in jobs that are too physically stressful or too dull for humans to want to do
That's a disturbing sentence. Most jobs are "dull". Peolpe work not to fill their otherwise empty existence, but in order to earn money. Dullness could be solved by making the tasks less dull, or empowering employees (even if the term has been abused).
The sentence is also dishonest. Businesses want robots to save costs and increase profits, not to make their employees happier.
jryle70 3 hours ago [-]
Successful businesses understand keeping employees happy is also good for business. It isn't either-or.
> Peolpe work not to fill their otherwise empty existence, but in order to earn money
Unless they are desperate, they'd still prefer less dull jobs. Desperate employees are disaster in the waiting.
> Dullness could be solved by making the tasks less dull
That's the recipe for unsafe working environments.
4 hours ago [-]
padolsey 3 hours ago [-]
> When Digit detects an approaching human, the robot will lower itself to the floor and cut power to its motors. Agility believes this is the only near-term approach to verifiably reduce risk when the robot is working near people.
I did not intend for a picture of a robot in a factory environment to make me go awwww :[
tailsdog 6 hours ago [-]
Does it even need legs? For most of these factory use cases would it not be more efficient/cheaper to have a version that has wheels to get around?
hingler36 5 hours ago [-]
The main appeal for human robots in general is that, in theory, they can go wherever humans can go. As soon as a facility has stairs or even a single step up wheeled robots can't work.
imtringued 2 hours ago [-]
Yeah, sure, but in practice your humanoid design might get beaten by a wheeled robot with arms long enough to grab things off the ground without bending down.
intrikate 2 hours ago [-]
Sure, until it needs to go up or down stairs.
world2vec 2 hours ago [-]
Why not an arachnoid form factor with wheels too? Like the tachikomas[0] from Ghost in the Shell world. It usually drives with its wheels but when needed it can use its legs like a spider/insect would. Much more efficient and versatile (and stable) than bipedal form factor IMHO.
I wonder if we're missing the much simpler thought of "Heelys for robots?" Put wheels in the feet so it can move with a quickness, but also let them step around when they need to maneuver into our spaces.
world2vec 3 minutes ago [-]
Carnegie Mellon has (had?) a robot called CHIMP that worked in similar fashion.
pixl97 6 minutes ago [-]
Boston Dynamics makes some robots like this.
helsinkiandrew 4 hours ago [-]
And some kind of bin holding attachment would be far more efficient than using arms and 'fingers'
ostacke 3 hours ago [-]
a forklift?
criddell 58 minutes ago [-]
Maybe the plan is for this thing to be able to drive a forklift?
jryle70 3 hours ago [-]
Automate forklift? like a conveyor?
jpm_sd 2 hours ago [-]
Many companies are developing wheeled-base humanoids ("bimanual manipulators"):
One needs legs to allow for more intimate appendages that sell.
contingencies 5 hours ago [-]
The market for souped-up vacuum cleaners is already saturated.
hn_submit 3 hours ago [-]
This robot looks a lot more "unnatural" compared to the Chinese robots currently being used in everything from gymnastics to fighting matches. Many people I showed videos of those thought they made with A.I. To be honest I wasn't completely sure myself.
Also, I wonder if (as in the case of XGO) it isn't easier to just automate the moving of crates onto the conveyor belt instead of using a robot picking them up and hauling them there.
jollyllama 1 hours ago [-]
> This robot looks a lot more "unnatural" compared to the Chinese robots currently being used in everything from gymnastics to fighting matches.
Yes, because as the author says, they actually had to try to make a humanoid that can do something useful, whereas the Chinese humanoids are simply demo-fodder for the uninitiated.
> Also, I wonder if (as in the case of XGO) it isn't easier to just automate the moving of crates onto the conveyor belt instead of using a robot picking them up and hauling them there.
It is, and there are many other better solutions as well, but it doesn't attract the notoriety that humanoids do.
amelius 5 hours ago [-]
Can anyone explain that if we had this more than 10 years ago:
I don't think anyone is having trouble making a robot walk. They've been very good at that for several years now. It's doing other stuff that's hard.
Gravityloss 4 hours ago [-]
Very nice video. Comparing to the channel's latest, I guess the channel itself experienced evolution, with the Algorithm and clicks as its fitness function...
GabeIsko 2 hours ago [-]
It is very simple. Those are not real machines.
glimshe 4 hours ago [-]
I think people can make robots walk, but it's really expensive and not particularly useful if most of what the robot does is walking.
jackling 2 hours ago [-]
I'm confused by your question. The video in question is an entity walking in a simulator and not real life? There's a world of difference between what can be achievable in a simulator, and how to transfer that simulator learning to the real world.
Real world is messy. Lowering the sim2real gap is challenging. The sim above doesn't model actuator dynamics, overheating, probably doesn't model inertia correctly, joint friction, delays, etc.
niemandhier 4 hours ago [-]
TIL that I should not confuse „ Agility Robotics“ and „Agile Robots“.
Both build humanoids, but apart from that the companies are quite different.
Gravityloss 4 hours ago [-]
Very beautifully written.
dvh 5 hours ago [-]
Are these kind of robots even economically viable? I've seen them doing work that would generally pay like $3/h. And human after a week is significantly faster.
WillAdams 5 hours ago [-]
>As of late 2026, Amazon’s U.S. warehouse hourly pay generally ranges from about $18 to $22 for most roles.
That said, after a while, one can be surprisingly fast when picking --- on one occasion I walked up to a bin full of non-descript cardboard boxes, grabbed one, spun it in my hands for the six-sided box check and scanned it to verify it was the correct pick, and then was asked to explain how I had gotten that right by a trainer w/ a bunch of trainees--- it seemed like almost five minutes of explanation of minor differences in cardboard texture, box shape, construction and so forth to explain how it was that at first glance, that was the only correct choice.
I've always wondered if LLMs would arrive at a similar conclusion with on-going training as they are used.
inshard 2 hours ago [-]
Interesting that he pivoted to something more akin to a human in the later versions. And I feel akin is an interesting word here. Kin selection is well-studied aspect of how genes work at population scale; and I wonder if by just having human-like traits like in the direction your knees bend, helps make robots more agreeable to us. And the UX of full submission as a human approaches, however the optics, seems to be a pretty strong way to indicate to the human user of a non-threatening environment in their control. I should be able to clearly see if something isn't as it should be if the humanoid fails to do this upon approach and take precautions.
I think that rather underestimates what people can and have done (cue John Henry story).
I worked in an Amazon warehouse for two different stints:
https://www.reddit.com/r/EDC/comments/dmnuts/53mamazon_fulfi...
and it was rather like a gym membership which I couldn't skip out on (glances at exercise equipment cluttering living space) and during which I could ponder life choices and consequences while wishing there was a soundtrack/music.
That said, this sort of thing, LLMs/AIs and data centers, and so forth feel like a perfect storm leading up to singularity (as envisioned by some optimistic science fiction authors) or something far worse, cue Marshall Brain's novella "Manna":
https://karmak.org/archive/2003/12/manna/manna1.htm
It was very sad to watch the ambitions of excited robotics researchers turn towards making what are essentially digital slaves. I am not saying that manufacturing or logistics couldn't, or even shouldn't be automated. But the true factories and distribution centers of the future will have to fundamentally rethink what productivity and coordinated work looks like, including having a greater imagination about work and employment.
Mimicking the human form inelegantly is not going to cut it, let alone reduce labor costs. I am all for the research, but the dream of replacing bin pickers with humanoid robots is cynical and hopeless.
The distinction between these and a laptop or a car is just form factor, from a "slavery" point of view.
This is like calling a child's doll a cloth slave.
If you want to build a general purpose industrial robot, surely a wheeled base with arms/hands is a better starting point. Cheaper, much easier to increase payload weight, and no risk of having it fall over onto someone.
If you want to build something which can navigate general terrain, then surely a robot dog is a better solution.
90% of use cases don't need both, and once you've solved building a general purpose industrial robot I promise you won't have trouble finding funding to add legs to it.
And it’s a winner take all market as the learning curve and efficiencies of scale will drive down the cost for the most general purpose form of robot.
No, and they aren't just bipedal. It is for replacing humans.
That's a disturbing sentence. Most jobs are "dull". Peolpe work not to fill their otherwise empty existence, but in order to earn money. Dullness could be solved by making the tasks less dull, or empowering employees (even if the term has been abused).
The sentence is also dishonest. Businesses want robots to save costs and increase profits, not to make their employees happier.
> Peolpe work not to fill their otherwise empty existence, but in order to earn money
Unless they are desperate, they'd still prefer less dull jobs. Desperate employees are disaster in the waiting.
> Dullness could be solved by making the tasks less dull
That's the recipe for unsafe working environments.
I did not intend for a picture of a robot in a factory environment to make me go awwww :[
[0] https://ghostintheshell.fandom.com/wiki/Tachikoma
https://www.unitree.com/G1-D
https://www.unitree.com/H2-D
https://www.agibot.com/products/G2
https://rainbow-robotics.com/en/products/rb-y1/
https://www.aurixrobotics.com/products/astribot-s1-ai-humano...
https://thehumanoid.ai/hmnd-01-alpha-wheeled/
https://www.waldenrobotics.com/
Also, I wonder if (as in the case of XGO) it isn't easier to just automate the moving of crates onto the conveyor belt instead of using a robot picking them up and hauling them there.
Yes, because as the author says, they actually had to try to make a humanoid that can do something useful, whereas the Chinese humanoids are simply demo-fodder for the uninitiated.
> Also, I wonder if (as in the case of XGO) it isn't easier to just automate the moving of crates onto the conveyor belt instead of using a robot picking them up and hauling them there.
It is, and there are many other better solutions as well, but it doesn't attract the notoriety that humanoids do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ2bqz3HPJE
we are still struggling with making a robot walk?
Real world is messy. Lowering the sim2real gap is challenging. The sim above doesn't model actuator dynamics, overheating, probably doesn't model inertia correctly, joint friction, delays, etc.
Both build humanoids, but apart from that the companies are quite different.
That said, after a while, one can be surprisingly fast when picking --- on one occasion I walked up to a bin full of non-descript cardboard boxes, grabbed one, spun it in my hands for the six-sided box check and scanned it to verify it was the correct pick, and then was asked to explain how I had gotten that right by a trainer w/ a bunch of trainees--- it seemed like almost five minutes of explanation of minor differences in cardboard texture, box shape, construction and so forth to explain how it was that at first glance, that was the only correct choice.
I've always wondered if LLMs would arrive at a similar conclusion with on-going training as they are used.