[They may finally be coming to the business world — starting in
warehouses]
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HUMANOID ROBOTS  
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Hiawatha Bray
October 5, 2023
Boston Globe
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_ They may finally be coming to the business world — starting in
warehouses _

Digit, a two-legged robot being developed by Agility Robotics in
Oregon for use in warehouses., Agility Robots

 

Human-like robots that stride around on two legs have long been the
stuff of science fiction movies and research labs. Now they just might
be coming to work in a warehouse near you.

You’ve probably heard of robots in warehouses, but this is
different. With their metallic arms and legs, these machines can fetch
and carry objects much like a human. They’ll start out by moving
boxes of merchandise onto conveyor belts, but their descendants could
one day restock supermarket shelves or lug packages from delivery
trucks to our front doors.

It sounds like the latest advance for a Boston-area warehouse
automation company, or perhaps Waltham’s Boston Dynamics
[[link removed]], which is famous for videos of its
breakdancing Atlas humanoid robots. But it’s not. These robots come
from companies you’ve likely never heard of.

Agility Robotics, [[link removed]] for instance. This
startup in Corvallis, Ore., is so confident in the success of its
two-legged robot, called Digit, that it’s building a factory capable
of making up to 10,000 of them per year. Agility announced last week
that it expects to begin production later this year. The company has
raised $179 million from investors including retailing titan Amazon,
which runs its own warehouse robot operations
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out of North Reading and Westborough.

Agility has plenty of other competition. In Austin, Texas, a company
called Apptronik [[link removed]] has raised $28 million to
develop a humanoid warehouse robot called Apollo which will begin
field tests next year. California-based Figure
[[link removed]]and the Canadian company Sanctuary AI
[[link removed]] are also getting into the game. Even electric
carmaker Tesla has been showing off prototypes
[[link removed]]of a humanoid robot.

Until now, the cost and technical challenges of building humanlike
robots have precluded their use in business. There’s also the risk
of putting such machines to work in close proximity to humans who
might be injured if a robot malfunctions. But the new wave of robot
makers say they’ve created humanoid machines that are ready to get
to work.

For now, Boston Dynamics remains on the sidelines, even though the
company, owned by South Korean conglomerate Hyundai, has developed
walking robots for more than three decades. The company has been
selling Spot, its doglike four-legged robot, since 2020 but has never
marketed a commercial version of the two-legged Atlas. Asked whether
this might soon change, the company replied with an emailed statement.

“Our work with Atlas remains focused on near-term research and
development motivated by and in support of launching commercial
products,” the statement said. “Pushing the limits on a humanoid
like Atlas drives hardware and software innovation that translates to
our other robot platforms. It also helps us explore the art of the
possible as we think about the capabilities and applications future
robots will need.”

A Boston Dynamics spokesperson added that Atlas engineers are
“starting to explore capabilities like two-handed mobile
manipulation and applications that look closer to something you might
find on a real-world job site.”

Jonathan Hurst, Agility Robotics’ cofounder, studied mechanical
engineering at Carnegie Mellon University and was a summer intern at
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Hurst agrees that Boston
Dynamics is a pioneer in humanoid robotics. “I’ve known them for a
long time,” he said. “We have a good relationship as competitors,
but friendly competitors.”

The issue with Boston Dynamics’ humanoid robot, Hurst said, is that
it’s too powerful. Atlas uses high-pressure hydraulic fluid,
enabling its quick and powerful movements. But “there is no path to
make that efficient,” Hurst said, because hydraulic systems are
heavy and consume lots of battery power.

Boston Dynamics is world-famous for videos of its breakdancing Atlas
humanoid robots.David L. Ryan/Globe Staff

They’re also potentially dangerous. A fluid leak could injure nearby
workers and contaminate the workspace. And the robot’s powerful arms
and legs could easily smash anybody who gets in the way. “They’re
never going to be safe to put around people,” said Jeff Cardenas,
Apptronik’s chief executive and cofounder.

Apollo, Digit, and other walking robots rely on electric motors,
making them lighter and more energy-efficient than Atlas. They can’t
perform backflips, but Cardenas said that in real-world applications
“you don’t need to do parkour.”

The robots also move more slowly than Atlas, making them safer around
humans, and their electric motors can stop them instantly if the
robots bump into something.

There are also substantial differences between Digit and Apollo. For
instance, Digit claims a two-hour battery life, while Apollo expects
four hours in normal use. The Apollo battery can be swapped out by a
human worker, while a depleted Digit will walk to a battery charger
and plug itself in for an hour.

The Apollo weighs 160 pounds and can lift up to 55 pounds, while Digit
weighs in at 141 pounds and has a 35-pound lifting capacity.

Cardenas said that when the Apollo enters full production in early
2025, it’ll be “roughly the price of the average car.” Hurst
said his company’s Digit machines will go on sale early next year;
he said a prototype created for preproduction testing cost $250,000,
but the commercial version will cost considerably less. Both companies
say they’ve lined up customers but won’t identify them yet.

The usual question arises: Won’t these robots displace human
workers?

The usual answer: Not likely, say the robot makers. Warehouses find it
difficult to recruit enough workers, because the jobs tend to be
strenuous and dull. Cardenas said that robots may reduce worker
turnover by allowing humans to handle the easier tasks. Meanwhile,
“robots can take over the part of the work that people don’t like
doing,” Cardenas said.

These robots likely will first see action in warehouses, where
they’ll grab plastic boxes filled with merchandise, then carry them
to a conveyor belt a few steps away. The robots will be physically
isolated from human workers, to minimize any risk of accident.
However, the machines are designed to function safely even when people
are nearby. For instance, they’ll walk around obstacles rather than
run into them.

Because warehouse floors are flat, putting such a robot on wheels
would be just as effective, and cheaper. But like teenagers working in
a warehouse, this is a starter job, meant to prove the machines’
reliability, while generating revenue for the robot companies.

“We’re starting in the warehouse because that’s the most
structured of the environments,” Cardenas said.

Ron Kyslinger, an independent consultant who has worked on robot
deployments at Amazon and Walmart, is skeptical about walking
warehouse robots. “Their application isn’t extremely practical
right now,” he said. Moving relatively lightweight plastic bins is a
dull job, but “a human can do this pretty much all day long.”

Kyslinger said what’s needed are humanoid robots that can bend over
and lift heavy loads — the sort of effort that often causes back
injuries in humans. “I’d be more impressed if it was picking up
40- or 50-pound bags of dog food,” he said.

But the robot makers say their legged robots are being given the easy
jobs first, while being groomed for tasks where wheels won’t work,
like climbing stairs or stepping over curbs. In time, the machines
will be trusted to work outside the warehouse. They could handle tasks
like stocking store shelves or delivering packages to homes. Hurst
foresees a future in which autonomous delivery trucks pull up to the
curb to wait, while several autonomous robots climb out, select the
correct parcels, and carry them to our front doors.

If it all comes together — still a huge “if” — Apptronik,
Agility, and other humanoid robot makers could spawn a vast new global
market, one that Boston Dynamics might still tap. The company has been
late to the party before. Last year, long after other local companies
helped spawn a warehouse robot boom, Boston Dynamics introduced
Stretch
[[link removed]],
an automaton built to unload trucks. If two-legged robots catch on,
Boston Dynamics may once again decide to catch up.

Hiawatha Bray can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him
@GlobeTechLab [[link removed]].

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