Insider Brief
- Agility Robotics and Fort Robotics expanded their multiyear partnership to develop a three-part safety architecture for Digit 5 covering a safety pendant, onboard communications and an off-robot interface for external safety systems.
- The companies said the agreement moves Fort beyond component supply into joint hardware development, solutions engineering, regulatory compliance and deployment support as Digit 5 moves toward broader commercial use.
- The partnership comes as Fort pursues a merger with Newbury Street II Acquisition Corp. valuing it at about $556.6 million, while Agility separately advances its previously announced $2.5 billion merger with Churchill Capital Corp XI.
Agility Robotics and Fort Robotics have expanded a multiyear partnership to develop safety systems for Digit 5, Agility’s next-generation humanoid robot, as the companies prepare the platform for broader commercial deployment.
According to the companies, their memorandum of understanding covering joint hardware development, solutions engineering, regulatory compliance and deployment support. The agreement builds on an existing relationship that began with individual Fort components used in earlier versions of Digit and moves Fort beyond its role as a component supplier.
An Expanded Partnership
Under the expanded partnership, expected to support current deployments along with future one, Agility and Fort are developing a three-part safety architecture for Digit 5:
- A safety pendant providing emergency-stop and enabling-device controls
- On-robot communications supporting Digit’s onboard safety systems
- An off-robot interface connecting Digit with external safety systems in its surroundings
The new off-robot component, called the Offboard Safety Bridge, is being jointly developed by the companies to extend Digit’s safety architecture beyond the robot itself by allowing signals from surrounding equipment or systems to interact with the robot’s safety controls.
Digit 5 will be Agility’s first humanoid designed for what the company calls cooperatively safe operation.and its planned onboard safety systems include human detection, safety cues and motion controls. As Digit takes on more tasks across warehouses, manufacturing sites and logistics facilities, it will be supported by the combination of Agility’s onboard systems and Fort’s external communication infrastructure.
“Agility has established itself as the leader in humanoid robotics by focusing on the only metrics that matter: safety and ROI,” noted Fort founder and CEO Samuel Reeves. “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.”
Previous versions of Digit have logged more than 65,000 operating hours and have been deployed at customer sites including Schaeffler, GXO and Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, according to Agility.
From Component Supplier to Safety Partner
The companies pointed out the formal agreement moves Fort beyond its role as a component supplier and establishes a more comprehensive operating relationship as Digit 5 deployments increase in scale and complexity.
Fort has supplied technology for several earlier Digit models. Earlier this year, Agility also selected the company to provide a custom pendant sled that holds Digit’s tablet and incorporates emergency-stop and enabling-device functions.
Like Digit 4, Digit 5 is expected to operate autonomously during normal work. Agility noted the pendant will allow customers to monitor the robot and provide a separate manual safety override during setup, maintenance or unexpected situations.
“Every layer we’ve added with Fort has made Digit’s safety system more resilient, not just more redundant,” Agility CTO Pras Velagapudi said. “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.”
The agreement coincides with the announcement of the S-4 filing by Fort and Newbury Street II Acquisition Corp in its process of going public. The transaction values Fort at an enterprise value of about $556.6 million, with the combined company expected to trade on Nasdaq under the ticker FROB. Agility is separately pursuing its previously announced $2.5 billion merger with Churchill Capital Corp XI.
