Agility gives Digit 5 new legs and safety controls

Agility gives Digit 5 new legs and safety controls

3 min read•Sep 15, 2026•
Ryan O'Connor
Ryan O'Connor

Agility Robotics unveiled Digit 5, a humanoid robot with redesigned legs, upgraded batteries and a broader safety architecture, first reported by Therobotreport. The company says the robot can work close to people without physical safety barriers, while its design incorporates safety requirements, facility logistics and certifications identified during earlier customer deployments.

The redesign follows three years of Digit 4 working on production floors. Jonathan Hurst said scaling required more than completing a task: FCC requirements, UL and ISO certifications, aisle dimensions, charger placement and facility workflows became hundreds of engineering requirements. The redesign connects the robot’s physical capabilities to the practical constraints of a facility.

Hardware built around industrial tasks

New proprietary cycloidal actuators power more human-like legs that can repeatedly lift up to 50 lb (22.7 kg). Padded knees help Digit kneel, while a stable squat lets it sit on the ground and turn off its motors when a person approaches.

It weighs 284 lb (129 kg), stands 5’ 11” (1.81 m), and can reach 7.2 feet (2.2 m), up from 5.5 ft for Digit 4. An autonomous charger supports 90 minutes of operation and a nine-minute full charge, giving Digit 5 a 10:1 run-to-charge ratio, up from Digit 4’s 2:1. The ratio enables more than 20 hours of work in a 24-hour day.

Agility also says Digit 5 will extend tote-based material handling into depalletizing, machine tending, kitting and sequencing, quality inspection and palletizing.

Safety is built into the platform

Agility says proprietary AI algorithms and multiple sensor technologies let Digit 5 detect people within a 360º radius. It can autonomously avoid, stop or assume a seated position as people approach, with no defined zones. Visual and auditory cues convey intent, while an independent safety controller oversees the response to people within an unsafe distance.

Agility is preparing to go public through a proposed SPAC merger with Churchill Capital Corp. XI. Recent SEC filings show $1.8 million in 2025 net sales, and the SPAC values Agility at $2.5 billion. Peggy Johnson said the company has more than $300 million in multi-year orders.

Early access is expected in the first half of 2027, with general availability for manufacturing, warehouse and distribution operators by the end of 2027. Agility also plans commercial deployment outside North America for the first time, starting in the European Union and United Kingdom, with a CE mark and additional regulatory marks expected for market access.

Arizona appeals court vacates manslaughter sentence after AI video

An Arizona appeals court vacated the 10.5-year sentence of Gabriel Horcasitas while upholding his manslaughter conviction, first reported by Nytimes. The case returns to Maricopa County Superior Court for resentencing without the video, after judges found that it presented scripted statements as if the victim himself were speaking in court.

The three-judge panel said the video generated a likeness of Christopher Pelkey’s voice and appearance but did not reflect actual events. It found that allowing and relying on the video made the sentencing fundamentally unfair, and noted that no prior Arizona case had addressed the admissibility of such a depiction at sentencing.

The judges said a victim’s right to speak cannot override a defendant’s right to be sentenced on accurate, reliable information. They said the video collapsed the distinction between the family’s belief about what Pelkey would have said and Pelkey’s own voice and opinions.

The ruling distinguishes family members speaking about Pelkey from a generated likeness that appeared to speak for him.

Pelkey’s sister, Stacey Wales, presented the video during Horcasitas’s sentencing alongside victim-impact statements from family and friends. Wales wrote the script and said her husband and the couple’s longtime business partner helped create the video using Pelkey’s voice from a YouTube video and his face and torso from a funeral-service poster.

Judge Todd F. Lang praised the video as genuine, then imposed the maximum sentence of 10.5 years, more than the nine years prosecutors had sought.

Wales said nobody intended to make the court believe Pelkey was alive or that he had recorded the video before his death. She said she disagreed with the ruling and argued that families use slide shows, collages, hypothetical conversations and poetry to convey grief.

Wales compared the AI video with photography, saying it took 15 years of landmark cases around the 1860s before photography was widely accepted in courts.

The case returns to Maricopa County Superior Court for a new sentencing hearing without the AI-generated video.