Toyota hires seven Agility humanoid robots for Canadian factory

Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada (TMMC) has officially hired seven Digit humanoid robots from Agility Robotics to work in its plant producing RAV4 SUVs, following a year-long pilot project. These robots are deployed under a robots-as-a-service model and will primarily unload totes of auto parts from an automated warehouse tugger. Digit, developed by Agility Robotics—a company spun out of Oregon State University—operates in industrial settings often bridging different automated production lines. This deployment is notable because integrating humanoid robots into real-world manufacturing workflows, including maintenance and charging, remains a complex and rare achievement. Agility Robotics is a leader in moving humanoid robots from labs into practical use, with Digit already working for logistics companies such as GXO, Schaeffler, and Amazon. The company uses a proprietary cloud-based software called Arc to manage robot fleets and leverages AI to reduce deployment costs and improve operational performance. Despite the progress, current humanoid robots capable of heavy lifting are not yet reliable enough