Factory robots long posed a safety threat to human workers. This company says it has solved that problem.

By William Gavin

Ahead of an expected public-market debut later this year, Agility Robotics says it's cracked the code and devised humanoids that can work safely near humans

Agility Robotics said its Digit 5 robot can work cooperatively with people, a breakthrough it says will help it scale commercially.

U.S. investors could soon get the chance to pile into a pure-play robotics company that said it just achieved a big breakthrough in the world of humanoids - as it seeks to improve its financial profile.

Agility Robotics on Tuesday revealed its Digit 5 humanoid: a 5-foot-11, 284-pound robot that can reach up to 7.2 feet and move products with "gripper" hands. The Salem, Ore., company said its robot is an improvement on the prior design that has been working for Amazon.com (AMZN) and other customers, capable of lifting more weight and with a better battery.

The "biggest, most consequential" improvement is what Agility has done to make Digit safer, according to Jonathan Hurst, Agility's co-founder and chief robot officer. Due to safety and regulatory concerns, he said, most humanoid robots working in factories and warehouses are physically separated from people.

Agility said it has taken that barrier out of the picture by making its humanoids capable of safely working in close proximity to real-life humans.

"We've spent the past couple of years figuring out how to ensure that a balancing, dynamically stable robot that could fall on your foot, that can swing its arm, hit somebody in the head ... can actually be safely deployed in close proximity to people," Hurst told MarketWatch.

Seventy-seven robot-related injuries were recorded in the U.S. between 2015 and 2022, according to a study that cited U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration data. Mobile robots, such as a robotic arm mounted on a moving platform, accounted for 23 of those incidents, causing primarily injuries to workers' legs and feet, the study said. However, critics argue that the accounting is incomplete due to a lack of robot-specific safety standards.

Humanoid robots also present similar, but potentially greater, safety risks when compared to traditional robots - without much in the way of tailored safety frameworks or regulation, according to the Association for Advancing Automation. They're incredibly heavy and strong, but are also designed to be more mobile and flexible, mimicking the advantages that humans have over traditional machinery. The artificial intelligence needed to make humanoids broadly useful is also still being developed, which can create additional risks.

Last year, a former head of safety at Nvidia (NVDA)-backed Figure AI sued the company, accusing it of retaliation after he warned that one of its robots could generate enough force to fracture a human skull. The plaintiff also cited an incident where a robot "narrowly" avoided striking an employee, instead leaving a quarter-inch gash in a refrigerator's stainless-steel door.

In a court filing, Figure denied the allegations.

Agility's safety solution is an array of specialized sensors that allows a Digit 5 to reliably detect people nearby and slow its movements when someone gets closer. Agility has also been working on writing safety standards around more free humanoids for third-party firms and insurers.

Hurst said it's a "major unlock" that Agility's competitors will also need to pursue. He thinks will take them a few years to redesign their robots and follow Agility's lead.

Agility currently has more than $300 million in multiyear orders for its humanoid robots from customers including Amazon, Schaeffler (XE:SHA0) and GXO Logistics (GXO). The company plans to start providing early access to Digit 5 in the first half of 2027, with general availability expected by the end of 2027.

Agility also confirmed it still intends to go public by the end of the year through a special-purpose-acquisition-company deal that would value it at $2.5 billion. That would make it the first public U.S. company dedicated exclusively to humanoid robots.

However, a regulatory filing showed that the company's financial position isn't very healthy. Without its SPAC deal, Agility said, the company has "concluded there is substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern."

In the filing, the company cited a history of operating losses and negative cash flows. Agility also noted that it requires "significant" additional capital, which may necessitate taking on debt, and that it has little experience with its "robot-as-a-service" model.

In 2025, Agility reported a $138 million net loss, compared with a $70.5 million net loss in the prior year. At the end of 2025, the company disclosed it had $105 million in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash, up from $36.9 million a year earlier.

Hurst told MarketWatch that Agility is "laying cards on the table" by going public and wants people to understand the scale and scope of what it aims to accomplish, calling it "separate from the hype story" around humanoid robots.

While some analysts expect the humanoid market to be worth trillions of dollars over the next few decades, the technology is still pretty new. Just 15,000 humanoids were deployed in 2025, according to Barclays. And one of the most-discussed potential growth opportunities for the industry, humanoid household servants, is at least 10 to 20 years away, Hurst said.

-William Gavin

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09-15-26 1211ET