Agility Robotics's Digit warehouse robot demonstrates AI-enhanced natural language understanding
Agility Robotics has revealed a demo video featuring its AI-enhanced Digit robot, which can now understand and carry out natural language commands. The bipedal warehouse robot, which gained a "head" and "hands" earlier this year, is described as "a physical embodiment of artificial intelligence." Pras Velagapudi, the company's Vice President of Innovation and Chief Architect, said the demo aimed to demonstrate how large language models (LLMs) could improve their humanoid machines.
Digit's task execution process
In the demonstration, Digit was placed in a setting with numbered towers of different heights and boxes with various attributes. The robot was provided with information about the environment but not specific task instructions. Instead, it received natural language commands of different complexity to test its ability to perform them. The clip shows Digit's thought process as it analyzes the environment, identifies items and locations, and figures out the steps needed to complete the command.
What was the command and how did it follow?
Digit was given the command, "Take the box that's the color of Darth Vader's lightsaber, and move it to the tallest tower in the front row." The robot thought its way through the assignment, starting with "I should find out what commands I can use." Finally, on finishing work, it declared: "I believe I have completed the task, as I have moved the box that is the color of Darth Vader's lightsaber to the tallest tower in the front row."
Implications for warehouse automation and employment
Agility Robotics' goal is to show how LLMs can make their robots more adaptable and quicker to deploy. The firm is building an Oregon factory to manufacture 10,000 humanoid robots per year and has signed an agreement with Amazon to test Digit in a facility in Seattle, US. There are concerns about robots replacing human workers in warehouses. However, Agility Robotics promotes Digit as relieving human employees from the most physically demanding tasks, rather than creating a Hollywood-style dystopian scenario.
What about its pricing and availability?
Digit is Agility's second robot after Cassie. The company wants to start shipping Digit's latest version in the US in early 2025. There, it is expected to cost less than $250,000 (around Rs. 2 crore).
