Agility Robotics has deepened its safety push for humanoid robots, signing a strategic partnership with FORT Robotics to extend protection beyond the machine as Digit 5 moves towards commercial deployment.
The companies said the agreement would expand a multi-year relationship into a three-part safety architecture spanning a safety pendant, onboard communications and off-robot interfaces. At its centre is a jointly developed Offboard Safety Bridge designed to connect Digit 5 with external safety systems operating across industrial facilities.
The move targets one of the biggest barriers to large-scale humanoid deployment: proving robots can work reliably alongside people in warehouses, factories and logistics operations.
Digit 5 will be Agility’s first humanoid engineered for cooperatively safe work, combining safe human detection, safety cues and motion control with FORT’s offboard communications infrastructure. Earlier Digit generations have logged more than 65,000 operating hours, including deployments with Schaeffler, GXO and Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada.
FORT has previously supplied technology for Digit, including a pendant sled integrating emergency-stop and enabling-device functionality. The pendant provides a manual safety override during setup, maintenance or unexpected events while Digit operates autonomously during normal work.
Under the expanded partnership, FORT will move beyond component supply into joint hardware development, solutions engineering, regulatory compliance and deployment support.
Agility CTO Pras Velagapudi said the Offboard Safety Bridge would help create safety infrastructure capable of responding to inputs from both the robot and its surrounding environment.
The companies expect the architecture to support Digit 5 deployments and future platform generations at industrial customer sites.
