Agility Robotics unveiled Digit 5 on 15 September 2026, the fifth generation of its general-purpose humanoid, positioned as the company's first machine engineered for what it calls cooperatively safe work at scale.

The practical claim is that Digit 5 can operate near people without the physical barriers conventional industrial automation requires. A new safety system detects a person nearby and changes the robot's behaviour on its own, either avoiding them, stopping, or lowering itself into a seated position if someone comes too close.

That matters commercially more than it sounds. Caging an industrial robot consumes floor space, fixes it in one place, and rules out any task that involves working alongside staff. A machine that can be trusted in shared space is a different product with a different addressable set of jobs.

The hardware was upgraded alongside it. A redesigned leg using proprietary cycloidal actuators delivers roughly 40 percent more payload, allowing repeated lifts up to 50 pounds. A new battery runs about 90 minutes and recharges in roughly nine minutes, a ten to one run-to-charge ratio that determines how much of a shift the robot can actually cover.

Agility reported more than $300 million in multi-year customer orders as of May 2026. Early access is expected in the first half of next year, with general availability by the end of 2027. The company also plans to sell outside North America for the first time, starting with the European Union and the United Kingdom, which requires CE marking and the associated regulatory approvals.

Notably, the safety standards this category will eventually be held to are still being written.