This humanoid robot sits down and powers off when you walk up

Agility Robotics built its newest humanoid to get out of your way by sitting on the floor. Co-founder Jonathan Hurst writes in IEEE Spectrum that as a person approaches, Digit 5 is programmed to stop, set down what it’s carrying, sit on the floor and cut power to its motors before that person can touch it. Gizmodo’s headline says it seems to cower when it encounters humans, and Gizmodo has a point.

It only sits once you get close. Ars Technica reported that when it spots a person at a distance, it can move to avoid them or stand still so they can pass. CTO Pras Velagapudi told Ars it has “a complex safe motion system that can take a variety of different mitigations depending on exactly what sort of human presence is detected.”

Safety cages are the reason. In Digit 4’s commercial deployments, Hurst writes, the robots had to work behind physical barriers, separated from people at all times, to meet insurance and regulatory demands; Agility spent two years on it. Interesting Engineering points out that fencing costs money, eats floor space and pins a machine to one station.

Hurst admits the result isn’t the robot he dreamed of. Digit 5 weighs over 120 kilograms, and he writes that “in some ways, Digit 5 feels more like a forklift than the graceful humanoid I set out to build.” Digital Today reported it can lift up to 50 pounds, about 40 percent more than the previous model, and Ars Technica says it runs 90 minutes on a nine-minute charge. (A forklift with manners.)

If you work in a warehouse, early access starts in the first half of 2027, Ars Technica reported from Agility’s announcement. Anyone pitching you a robot coworker should be able to tell you what it does when you walk up behind it, and Agility’s answer is visible from across the room.

I’d rather work next to the one that sits down.