01 October 2026 | News
Image Courtesy: Public Domain
Agility Robotics, a leading humanoid robotics and physical AI company, and FORT Robotics, a safety platform building the Trust Layer for physical AI, signed a memorandum of understanding outlining a partnership to further advance the safety infrastructure of Digit® 5, Agility's next-generation humanoid robot engineered for cooperatively safe work at scale. The partnership will deepen a historical, multi-year engagement that has grown from a single custom hardware component into an integrated, three-part safety architecture consisting of a safety pendant, on-robot communications, and off-robot interfaces connecting Digit with external safety systems. The off-robot interface, jointly developed by FORT and Agility, is designed to extend Agility's cooperative-safety approach beyond the robot itself, enhancing the onboard safety architecture already planned for Digit 5.
The partnership will also establish a broader operating framework for how the two companies will work together in the future as Digit 5 begins deployment and scales into more complex commercial environments. This will include joint hardware development, solutions engineering, regulatory compliance, and deployment support - reinforcing a shared commitment to a rigorous, transparent safety architecture as humanoid robots take on more tasks in close proximity to people in industrial environments such as warehouses, manufacturing, and logistics.
Advancing Safe Humanoid Deployment
Humanoid robots are increasingly expected to work in spaces designed for people, a shift that depends on safety systems capable of operating reliably both on the robot and in its environment. The upcoming Digit 5 will be Agility's first humanoid robot engineered for cooperatively safe work, and will be built on a safety architecture spanning safe human detection, safety cues, and safe motion control. By combining an onboard approach with FORT's offboard communication infrastructure, the companies aim to give customers a more complete safety and efficiency envelope as Digit takes on new tasks across their facility. Digit 5's predecessors have already logged more than 65,000 hours of operation and have been deployed at customer sites including Schaeffler, GXO, and Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada.
From Component Supplier to Safety Partner
Agility has embedded FORT's technology in several past versions of Digit, and engaged FORT earlier this year to deliver the pendant sled, a custom-built holder for Digit's tablet that integrates emergency stop and enabling-device functionality. Like Agility's Digit 4, Digit 5 will be capable of operating autonomously during normal work. The pendant will be used to monitor the robot and provide the customer with a redundant manual override for safety purposes during setup, maintenance, or in the event of an unexpected situation. This will provide customers with an additional independent layer of protection while providing customers continuity of safety coverage as deployments expand, and complement Digit 5's anticipated onboard Safe Human Detection system.
"Every layer we've added with FORT has made Digit's safety system more resilient, not just more redundant," said Pras Velagapudi, CTO at Agility Robotics. "The Offboard Safety Bridge is a good example of what this partnership is really about: building safety infrastructure that works whether the input is coming from onboard the robot, or from the environment around it, so the robot can be trusted to operate near people in a more diverse set of environments."
A Broader Strategic Partnership
The formalized partnership is intended to move FORT beyond component supply and into a deeper operating relationship with Agility, one built to keep pace as Digit 5 deployments grow in number and complexity.
"Agility has established itself as the leader in humanoid robotics by focusing on the only metrics that matter: safety and ROI," said Samuel Reeves, Founder and CEO of FORT Robotics. "Physical AI only earns trust when the safety layer around it is as capable and as accountable as the robot itself. Formalizing this as a strategic partnership reflects how central that architecture has become to getting humanoid robots to work safely in close proximity with people."
The companies expect the expanded partnership to support Agility's ongoing deployments with enterprise customers and to inform the safety architecture of Digit 5 and future generations of the platform as the robot takes on a wider range of environments and tasks.
