This story is part of our Top Tech 2024 special report.

Journey to the Center of the Earth

To unlock the terawatt potential of geothermal energy, MIT startup Quaise Energy is testing a deep-drilling rig in 2024 that will use high-power millimeter waves to melt a column of rock down as far as 10 to 20 kilometers. Its “deeper, hotter, and faster” strategy will start with old oil-and-gas drilling structures and extend them by blasting radiation from a gyrotron to vaporize the hard rock beneath. At these depths, Earth reaches 500 °C. Accessing this superhot geothermal energy could be a key part of achieving net zero emission goals by 2050, according to Quaise executives.

“Batteries Included” Induction Ovens

Now we’re cooking with gas—but soon, we may be cooking with induction. A growing number of consumers are switching to induction-based stoves and ovens to address environmental concerns and health risks associated with gas ranges. But while these new appliances are more energy efficient, most models require modified electrical outlets and cost hundreds of dollars to install. That’s why startups like Channing Street Copper and Impulse Labs are working to make induction ovens easier to install by adding built-in batteries that supplement regular wall-socket power. Channing Street Copper plans to roll out its battery-boosted Charlie appliance in early 2024.

Triage Tech to the Rescue

In the second half of 2024, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency will begin the first round of its Triage Challenge, a competition to develop sensors and algorithms to support triage efforts during mass-casualty incidents. According to a DARPA video presentation from last February, the agency is seeking new ways to help medics at two stages of treatment: During primary triage, those most in need of care will be identified with sensors from afar. Then, when the patients are stable, medics can decide the best treatment regimens based on data gleaned from noninvasive sensors. The three rounds will continue through 2026, with prizes totaling US $7 million.

Killer Drones Deployed From the Skies

A new class of missile-firing drones will take to the skies in 2024. Like a three-layer aerial nesting doll, the missile-stuffed drone is itself released from the belly of a bomber while in flight. The uncrewed aircraft was developed by energy and defense company General Atomics as part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s LongShot program and will be flight-tested this year to prove its feasibility in air-based combat. Its goal is to extend the range and effectiveness of both air-to-air missiles and the current class of fighter jets while new aircraft are introduced.

Visible’s Anti-Activity Tracker

Long COVID and chronic fatigue often go unseen by others. But it’s important that people with these invisible illnesses understand how different activities affect their symptoms so they can properly pace their days. That’s why one man with long COVID, Harry Leeming, decided to create Visible, an app that helps users monitor activity and avoid overexertion. This year, according to Leeming, Visible will launch a premium version of the app that uses a specialized heart-rate monitor. While most wearables are meant for workouts, Leeming says, these armband monitors are optimized for lower heart rates to help people with both long COVID and fatigue. The app will also collect data from consenting users to help research these conditions.

Amazon Launches New Internet Service—Literally

Amazon expects to begin providing Internet service from space with Project Kuiper by the end of 2024. The US $10 billion project aims to expand reliable broadband internet access to rural areas around the globe by launching a constellation of more than 3,000 satellites into low Earth orbit. While the project will take years to complete in full, Amazon is set to start beta testing with customers later this year. If successful, Kuiper could be integrated into the suite of Amazon Web Services. SpaceX’s Starlink, meanwhile, has been active since 2019 and already has 5,000 satellites in orbit.

Solar-Powered Test Drive

The next car you buy might be powered by the sun. Long awaited by potential customers and crowdfunders, solar electric vehicles (SEVs) made by the startup Aptera Motors are set to hit the road in 2024, the company says. Like the cooler cousin of an SUV, these three-wheeled SEVs feature a sleek, aerodynamic design to cut down on drag. The latest version of the vehicle combines plug-in capability with solar panels that cover its roof, allowing for a 1,600-kilometer range on a single charge and up to 65 km a day from solar power. Aptera says it aims to begin early production in 2024, with the first 2,000 vehicles set to be delivered to investors.

Zero Trust, Two-Thirds Confidence

“Trust but verify” is now a proverb of the past in cybersecurity policy in the United States. By the end of the 2024 fiscal year, in September, all U.S. government agencies will be required to switch to a Zero Trust security architecture. All users must validate their identity and devices—even when they’re already connected to government networks and VPNs. This is achieved with methods like multifactor authentication and other access controls. About two-thirds of security professionals employed by federal agencies are confident that their department will hit the cybersecurity deadline, according to a 2023 report.

First Light for Vera Rubin

Vera C. Rubin Observatory, home to the largest digital camera ever constructed, is expected to open its eye to the sky for the first time in late 2024. The observatory features an 8.4-meter wide-field telescope that will scan the Southern Hemisphere’s skies over the course of a decade-long project. Equipped with a 3,200-megapixel camera, the telescope will photograph an area the size of 40 full moons every night from its perch atop a Chilean mountain. That means it can capture the entire visible sky every three to four nights. When operational, the Rubin Observatory will help astronomers inventory the solar system, map the Milky Way, and shed light on dark matter and dark energy.

Hailing Air Taxis at the Olympics

At this year’s summer Olympic Games in Paris, attendees may be able to take an electric vertical-take-off-and-landing vehicle, or eVTOL, to get around the city. Volocopter, in Bruchsal, Germany, hopes to make an air taxi service available to sports enthusiasts and tourists during the competition. Though the company is still awaiting certification from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, Volocopter plans to offer three routes between various parts of the city, as well as two round-trip routes for tourists. Volocopter’s air taxis could make Paris the first European city to offer eVTOL services.

Faster Than a Speeding Bullet

Boom Technology is developing an airliner, called Overture, that flies faster than the speed of sound. The U.S. company says it’s set to finish construction of its North Carolina “superfactory” in 2024. Each year Boom plans to manufacture as many as 33 of the aircraft, which the company claims will be the world’s fastest airliner. Overture is designed to be capable of flying twice as fast as today’s commercial planes, and Boom says it expects the plane to be powered by sustainable aviation fuel, made without petroleum. The company says it already has orders in place from commercial airlines and is aiming for first flight by 2027.

This story is part of our Top Tech 2024 special report.

Journey to the Center of the Earth

To unlock the terawatt potential of geothermal energy, MIT startup Quaise Energy is testing a deep-drilling rig in 2024 that will use high-power millimeter waves to melt a column of rock down as far as 10 to 20 kilometers. Its “deeper, hotter, and faster” strategy will start with old oil-and-gas drilling structures and extend them by blasting radiation from a gyrotron to vaporize the hard rock beneath. At these depths, Earth reaches 500 °C. Accessing this superhot geothermal energy could be a key part of achieving net zero emission goals by 2050, according to Quaise executives.

“Batteries Included” Induction Ovens

Now we’re cooking with gas—but soon, we may be cooking with induction. A growing number of consumers are switching to induction-based stoves and ovens to address environmental concerns and health risks associated with gas ranges. But while these new appliances are more energy efficient, most models require modified electrical outlets and cost hundreds of dollars to install. That’s why startups like Channing Street Copper and Impulse Labs are working to make induction ovens easier to install by adding built-in batteries that supplement regular wall-socket power. Channing Street Copper plans to roll out its battery-boosted Charlie appliance in early 2024.

Triage Tech to the Rescue

In the second half of 2024, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency will begin the first round of its Triage Challenge, a competition to develop sensors and algorithms to support triage efforts during mass-casualty incidents. According to a DARPA video presentation from last February, the agency is seeking new ways to help medics at two stages of treatment: During primary triage, those most in need of care will be identified with sensors from afar. Then, when the patients are stable, medics can decide the best treatment regimens based on data gleaned from noninvasive sensors. The three rounds will continue through 2026, with prizes totaling US $7 million.

Killer Drones Deployed From the Skies

A new class of missile-firing drones will take to the skies in 2024. Like a three-layer aerial nesting doll, the missile-stuffed drone is itself released from the belly of a bomber while in flight. The uncrewed aircraft was developed by energy and defense company General Atomics as part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s LongShot program and will be flight-tested this year to prove its feasibility in air-based combat. Its goal is to extend the range and effectiveness of both air-to-air missiles and the current class of fighter jets while new aircraft are introduced.

Visible’s Anti-Activity Tracker

Long COVID and chronic fatigue often go unseen by others. But it’s important that people with these invisible illnesses understand how different activities affect their symptoms so they can properly pace their days. That’s why one man with long COVID, Harry Leeming, decided to create Visible, an app that helps users monitor activity and avoid overexertion. This year, according to Leeming, Visible will launch a premium version of the app that uses a specialized heart-rate monitor. While most wearables are meant for workouts, Leeming says, these armband monitors are optimized for lower heart rates to help people with both long COVID and fatigue. The app will also collect data from consenting users to help research these conditions.

Amazon Launches New Internet Service—Literally

Amazon expects to begin providing Internet service from space with Project Kuiper by the end of 2024. The US $10 billion project aims to expand reliable broadband internet access to rural areas around the globe by launching a constellation of more than 3,000 satellites into low Earth orbit. While the project will take years to complete in full, Amazon is set to start beta testing with customers later this year. If successful, Kuiper could be integrated into the suite of Amazon Web Services. SpaceX’s Starlink, meanwhile, has been active since 2019 and already has 5,000 satellites in orbit.

Solar-Powered Test Drive

The next car you buy might be powered by the sun. Long awaited by potential customers and crowdfunders, solar electric vehicles (SEVs) made by the startup Aptera Motors are set to hit the road in 2024, the company says. Like the cooler cousin of an SUV, these three-wheeled SEVs feature a sleek, aerodynamic design to cut down on drag. The latest version of the vehicle combines plug-in capability with solar panels that cover its roof, allowing for a 1,600-kilometer range on a single charge and up to 65 km a day from solar power. Aptera says it aims to begin early production in 2024, with the first 2,000 vehicles set to be delivered to investors.

Zero Trust, Two-Thirds Confidence

“Trust but verify” is now a proverb of the past in cybersecurity policy in the United States. By the end of the 2024 fiscal year, in September, all U.S. government agencies will be required to switch to a Zero Trust security architecture. All users must validate their identity and devices—even when they’re already connected to government networks and VPNs. This is achieved with methods like multifactor authentication and other access controls. About two-thirds of security professionals employed by federal agencies are confident that their department will hit the cybersecurity deadline, according to a 2023 report.

First Light for Vera Rubin

Vera C. Rubin Observatory, home to the largest digital camera ever constructed, is expected to open its eye to the sky for the first time in late 2024. The observatory features an 8.4-meter wide-field telescope that will scan the Southern Hemisphere’s skies over the course of a decade-long project. Equipped with a 3,200-megapixel camera, the telescope will photograph an area the size of 40 full moons every night from its perch atop a Chilean mountain. That means it can capture the entire visible sky every three to four nights. When operational, the Rubin Observatory will help astronomers inventory the solar system, map the Milky Way, and shed light on dark matter and dark energy.

Hailing Air Taxis at the Olympics

At this year’s summer Olympic Games in Paris, attendees may be able to take an electric vertical-take-off-and-landing vehicle, or eVTOL, to get around the city. Volocopter, in Bruchsal, Germany, hopes to make an air taxi service available to sports enthusiasts and tourists during the competition. Though the company is still awaiting certification from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, Volocopter plans to offer three routes between various parts of the city, as well as two round-trip routes for tourists. Volocopter’s air taxis could make Paris the first European city to offer eVTOL services.

Faster Than a Speeding Bullet

Boom Technology is developing an airliner, called Overture, that flies faster than the speed of sound. The U.S. company says it’s set to finish construction of its North Carolina “superfactory” in 2024. Each year Boom plans to manufacture as many as 33 of the aircraft, which the company claims will be the world’s fastest airliner. Overture is designed to be capable of flying twice as fast as today’s commercial planes, and Boom says it expects the plane to be powered by sustainable aviation fuel, made without petroleum. The company says it already has orders in place from commercial airlines and is aiming for first flight by 2027.

Ten years ago, at the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) Trial event near Miami, I watched the most advanced humanoid robots ever built struggle their way through a scenario inspired by the Fukushima nuclear disaster. A team of experienced engineers controlled each robot, and overhead safety tethers kept them from falling over. The robots had to demonstrate mobility, sensing, and manipulation—which, with painful slowness, they did.

These robots were clearly research projects, but DARPA has a history of catalyzing technology with a long-term view. The DARPA Grand and Urban Challenges for autonomous vehicles, in 2005 and 2007, formed the foundation for today’s autonomous taxis. So, after DRC ended in 2015 with several of the robots successfully completing the entire final scenario, the obvious question was: When would humanoid robots make the transition from research project to a commercial product?

This article is part of our special report Top Tech 2024.

The answer seems to be 2024, when a handful of well-funded companies will be deploying their robots in commercial pilot projects to figure out whether humanoids are really ready to get to work.

One of the robots that made an appearance at the DRC Finals in 2015 was called ATRIAS, developed by Jonathan Hurst at the Oregon State University Dynamic Robotics Laboratory. In 2015, Hurst cofounded Agility Robotics to turn ATRIAS into a human-centric, multipurpose, and practical robot called Digit. Approximately the same size as a human, Digit stands 1.75 meters tall (about 5 feet, 8 inches), weighs 65 kilograms (about 140 pounds), and can lift 16 kg (about 35 pounds). Agility is now preparing to produce a commercial version of Digit at massive scale, and the company sees its first opportunity in the logistics industry, where it will start doing some of the jobs where humans are essentially acting like robots already.

Are humanoid robots useful?

“We spent a long time working with potential customers to find a use case where our technology can provide real value, while also being scalable and profitable,” Hurst says. “For us, right now, that use case is moving e-commerce totes.” Totes are standardized containers that warehouses use to store and transport items. As items enter or leave the warehouse, empty totes need to be continuously moved from place to place. It’s a vital job, and even in highly automated warehouses, much of that job is done by humans.

Agility says that in the United States, there are currently several million people working at tote-handling tasks, and logistics companies are having trouble keeping positions filled, because in some markets there are simply not enough workers available. Furthermore, the work tends to be dull, repetitive, and stressful on the body. “The people doing these jobs are basically doing robotic jobs,” says Hurst, and Agility argues that these people would be much better off doing work that’s more suited to their strengths. “What we’re going to have is a shifting of the human workforce into a more supervisory role,” explains Damion Shelton, Agility Robotics’ CEO. “We’re trying to build something that works with people,” Hurst adds. “We want humans for their judgment, creativity, and decision-making, using our robots as tools to do their jobs faster and more efficiently.”

For Digit to be an effective warehouse tool, it has to be capable, reliable, safe, and financially sustainable for both Agility and its customers. Agility is confident that all of this is possible, citing Digit’s potential relative to the cost and performance of human workers. “What we’re encouraging people to think about,” says Shelton, “is how much they could be saving per hour by being able to allocate their human capital elsewhere in the building.” Shelton estimates that a typical large logistics company spends at least US $30 per employee-hour for labor, including benefits and overhead. The employee, of course, receives much less than that.

Agility is not yet ready to provide pricing information for Digit, but we’re told that it will cost less than $250,000 per unit. Even at that price, if Digit is able to achieve Agility’s goal of minimum 20,000 working hours (five years of two shifts of work per day), that brings the hourly rate of the robot to $12.50. A service contract would likely add a few dollars per hour to that. “You compare that against human labor doing the same task,” Shelton says, “and as long as it’s apples to apples in terms of the rate that the robot is working versus the rate that the human is working, you can decide whether it makes more sense to have the person or the robot.”

Agility’s robot won’t be able to match the general capability of a human, but that’s not the company’s goal. “Digit won’t be doing everything that a person can do,” says Hurst. “It’ll just be doing that one process-automated task,” like moving empty totes. In these tasks, Digit is able to keep up with (and in fact slightly exceed) the speed of the average human worker, when you consider that the robot doesn’t have to accommodate the needs of a frail human body.

Amazon’s experiments with warehouse robots

The first company to put Digit to the test is Amazon. In 2022, Amazon invested in Agility as part of its Industrial Innovation Fund, and late last year Amazon started testing Digit at its robotics research and development site near Seattle, Wash. Digit will not be lonely at Amazon—the company currently has more than 750,000 robots deployed across its warehouses, including legacy systems that operate in closed-off areas as well as more modern robots that have the necessary autonomy to work more collaboratively with people. These newer robots include autonomous mobile robotic bases like Proteus, which can move carts around warehouses, as well as stationary robot arms like Sparrow and Cardinal, which can handle inventory or customer orders in structured environments. But a robot with legs will be something new.

“What’s interesting about Digit is because of its bipedal nature, it can fit in spaces a little bit differently,” says Emily Vetterick, director of engineering at Amazon Global Robotics, who is overseeing Digit’s testing. “We’re excited to be at this point with Digit where we can start testing it, because we’re going to learn where the technology makes sense.”

Where two legs make sense has been an ongoing question in robotics for decades. Obviously, in a world designed primarily for humans, a robot with a humanoid form factor would be ideal. But balancing dynamically on two legs is still difficult for robots, especially when those robots are carrying heavy objects and are expected to work at a human pace for tens of thousands of hours. When is it worthwhile to use a bipedal robot instead of something simpler?

“The people doing these jobs are basically doing robotic jobs.”—Jonathan Hurst, Agility Robotics

“The use case for Digit that I’m really excited about is empty tote recycling,” Vetterick says. “We already automate this task in a lot of our warehouses with a conveyor, a very traditional automation solution, and we wouldn’t want a robot in a place where a conveyor works. But a conveyor has a specific footprint, and it’s conducive to certain types of spaces. When we start to get away from those spaces, that’s where robots start to have a functional need to exist.”

The need for a robot doesn’t always translate into the need for a robot with legs, however, and a company like Amazon has the resources to build its warehouses to support whatever form of robotics or automation it needs. Its newer warehouses are indeed built that way, with flat floors, wide aisles, and other environmental considerations that are particularly friendly to robots with wheels.

“The building types that we’re thinking about [for Digit] aren’t our new-generation buildings. They’re older-generation buildings, where we can’t put in traditional automation solutions because there just isn’t the space for them,” says Vetterick. She describes the organized chaos of some of these older buildings as including narrower aisles with roof supports in the middle of them, and areas where pallets, cardboard, electrical cord covers, and ergonomics mats create uneven floors. “Our buildings are easy for people to navigate,” Vetterick continues. “But even small obstructions become barriers that a wheeled robot might struggle with, and where a walking robot might not.” Fundamentally, that’s the advantage bipedal robots offer relative to other form factors: They can quickly and easily fit into spaces and workflows designed for humans. Or at least, that’s the goal.

Vetterick emphasizes that the Seattle R&D site deployment is only a very small initial test of Digit’s capabilities. Having the robot move totes from a shelf to a conveyor across a flat, empty floor is not reflective of the use case that Amazon ultimately would like to explore. Amazon is not even sure that Digit will turn out to be the best tool for this particular job, and for a company so focused on efficiency, only the best solution to a specific problem will find a permanent home as part of its workflow. “Amazon isn’t interested in a general-purpose robot,” Vetterick explains. “We are always focused on what problem we’re trying to solve. I wouldn’t want to suggest that Digit is the only way to solve this type of problem. It’s one potential way that we’re interested in experimenting with.”

The idea of a general-purpose humanoid robot that can assist people with whatever tasks they may need is certainly appealing, but as Amazon makes clear, the first step for companies like Agility is to find enough value performing a single task (or perhaps a few different tasks) to achieve sustainable growth. Agility believes that Digit will be able to scale its business by solving Amazon’s empty tote-recycling problem, and the company is confident enough that it’s preparing to open a factory in Salem, Ore. At peak production the plant will eventually be capable of manufacturing 10,000 Digit robots per year.

A menagerie of humanoids

Agility is not alone in its goal to commercially deploy bipedal robots in 2024. At least seven other companies are also working toward this goal, with hundreds of millions of dollars of funding backing them. 1X, Apptronik, Figure, Sanctuary, Tesla, and Unitree all have commercial humanoid robot prototypes.

Despite an influx of money and talent into commercial humanoid robot development over the past two years, there have been no recent fundamental technological breakthroughs that will substantially aid these robots’ development. Sensors and computers are capable enough, but actuators remain complex and expensive, and batteries struggle to power bipedal robots for the length of a work shift.

There are other challenges as well, including creating a robot that’s manufacturable with a resilient supply chain and developing the service infrastructure to support a commercial deployment at scale. The biggest challenge by far is software. It’s not enough to simply build a robot that can do a job—that robot has to do the job with the kind of safety, reliability, and efficiency that will make it desirable as more than an experiment.

There’s no question that Agility Robotics and the other companies developing commercial humanoids have impressive technology, a compelling narrative, and an enormous amount of potential. Whether that potential will translate into humanoid robots in the workplace now rests with companies like Amazon, who seem cautiously optimistic. It would be a fundamental shift in how repetitive labor is done. And now, all the robots have to do is deliver.

This article appears in the January 2024 print issue as “Year of the Humanoid.”

Ten years ago, at the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) Trial event near Miami, I watched the most advanced humanoid robots ever built struggle their way through a scenario inspired by the Fukushima nuclear disaster. A team of experienced engineers controlled each robot, and overhead safety tethers kept them from falling over. The robots had to demonstrate mobility, sensing, and manipulation—which, with painful slowness, they did.

These robots were clearly research projects, but DARPA has a history of catalyzing technology with a long-term view. The DARPA Grand and Urban Challenges for autonomous vehicles, in 2005 and 2007, formed the foundation for today’s autonomous taxis. So, after DRC ended in 2015 with several of the robots successfully completing the entire final scenario, the obvious question was: When would humanoid robots make the transition from research project to a commercial product?

This article is part of our special report Top Tech 2024.

The answer seems to be 2024, when a handful of well-funded companies will be deploying their robots in commercial pilot projects to figure out whether humanoids are really ready to get to work.

One of the robots that made an appearance at the DRC Finals in 2015 was called ATRIAS, developed by Jonathan Hurst at the Oregon State University Dynamic Robotics Laboratory. In 2015, Hurst cofounded Agility Robotics to turn ATRIAS into a human-centric, multipurpose, and practical robot called Digit. Approximately the same size as a human, Digit stands 1.75 meters tall (about 5 feet, 8 inches), weighs 65 kilograms (about 140 pounds), and can lift 16 kg (about 35 pounds). Agility is now preparing to produce a commercial version of Digit at massive scale, and the company sees its first opportunity in the logistics industry, where it will start doing some of the jobs where humans are essentially acting like robots already.

Are humanoid robots useful?

“We spent a long time working with potential customers to find a use case where our technology can provide real value, while also being scalable and profitable,” Hurst says. “For us, right now, that use case is moving e-commerce totes.” Totes are standardized containers that warehouses use to store and transport items. As items enter or leave the warehouse, empty totes need to be continuously moved from place to place. It’s a vital job, and even in highly automated warehouses, much of that job is done by humans.

Agility says that in the United States, there are currently several million people working at tote-handling tasks, and logistics companies are having trouble keeping positions filled, because in some markets there are simply not enough workers available. Furthermore, the work tends to be dull, repetitive, and stressful on the body. “The people doing these jobs are basically doing robotic jobs,” says Hurst, and Agility argues that these people would be much better off doing work that’s more suited to their strengths. “What we’re going to have is a shifting of the human workforce into a more supervisory role,” explains Damion Shelton, Agility Robotics’ CEO. “We’re trying to build something that works with people,” Hurst adds. “We want humans for their judgment, creativity, and decision-making, using our robots as tools to do their jobs faster and more efficiently.”

For Digit to be an effective warehouse tool, it has to be capable, reliable, safe, and financially sustainable for both Agility and its customers. Agility is confident that all of this is possible, citing Digit’s potential relative to the cost and performance of human workers. “What we’re encouraging people to think about,” says Shelton, “is how much they could be saving per hour by being able to allocate their human capital elsewhere in the building.” Shelton estimates that a typical large logistics company spends at least US $30 per employee-hour for labor, including benefits and overhead. The employee, of course, receives much less than that.

Agility is not yet ready to provide pricing information for Digit, but we’re told that it will cost less than $250,000 per unit. Even at that price, if Digit is able to achieve Agility’s goal of minimum 20,000 working hours (five years of two shifts of work per day), that brings the hourly rate of the robot to $12.50. A service contract would likely add a few dollars per hour to that. “You compare that against human labor doing the same task,” Shelton says, “and as long as it’s apples to apples in terms of the rate that the robot is working versus the rate that the human is working, you can decide whether it makes more sense to have the person or the robot.”

Agility’s robot won’t be able to match the general capability of a human, but that’s not the company’s goal. “Digit won’t be doing everything that a person can do,” says Hurst. “It’ll just be doing that one process-automated task,” like moving empty totes. In these tasks, Digit is able to keep up with (and in fact slightly exceed) the speed of the average human worker, when you consider that the robot doesn’t have to accommodate the needs of a frail human body.

Amazon’s experiments with warehouse robots

The first company to put Digit to the test is Amazon. In 2022, Amazon invested in Agility as part of its Industrial Innovation Fund, and late last year Amazon started testing Digit at its robotics research and development site near Seattle, Wash. Digit will not be lonely at Amazon—the company currently has more than 750,000 robots deployed across its warehouses, including legacy systems that operate in closed-off areas as well as more modern robots that have the necessary autonomy to work more collaboratively with people. These newer robots include autonomous mobile robotic bases like Proteus, which can move carts around warehouses, as well as stationary robot arms like Sparrow and Cardinal, which can handle inventory or customer orders in structured environments. But a robot with legs will be something new.

“What’s interesting about Digit is because of its bipedal nature, it can fit in spaces a little bit differently,” says Emily Vetterick, director of engineering at Amazon Global Robotics, who is overseeing Digit’s testing. “We’re excited to be at this point with Digit where we can start testing it, because we’re going to learn where the technology makes sense.”

Where two legs make sense has been an ongoing question in robotics for decades. Obviously, in a world designed primarily for humans, a robot with a humanoid form factor would be ideal. But balancing dynamically on two legs is still difficult for robots, especially when those robots are carrying heavy objects and are expected to work at a human pace for tens of thousands of hours. When is it worthwhile to use a bipedal robot instead of something simpler?

“The people doing these jobs are basically doing robotic jobs.”—Jonathan Hurst, Agility Robotics

“The use case for Digit that I’m really excited about is empty tote recycling,” Vetterick says. “We already automate this task in a lot of our warehouses with a conveyor, a very traditional automation solution, and we wouldn’t want a robot in a place where a conveyor works. But a conveyor has a specific footprint, and it’s conducive to certain types of spaces. When we start to get away from those spaces, that’s where robots start to have a functional need to exist.”

The need for a robot doesn’t always translate into the need for a robot with legs, however, and a company like Amazon has the resources to build its warehouses to support whatever form of robotics or automation it needs. Its newer warehouses are indeed built that way, with flat floors, wide aisles, and other environmental considerations that are particularly friendly to robots with wheels.

“The building types that we’re thinking about [for Digit] aren’t our new-generation buildings. They’re older-generation buildings, where we can’t put in traditional automation solutions because there just isn’t the space for them,” says Vetterick. She describes the organized chaos of some of these older buildings as including narrower aisles with roof supports in the middle of them, and areas where pallets, cardboard, electrical cord covers, and ergonomics mats create uneven floors. “Our buildings are easy for people to navigate,” Vetterick continues. “But even small obstructions become barriers that a wheeled robot might struggle with, and where a walking robot might not.” Fundamentally, that’s the advantage bipedal robots offer relative to other form factors: They can quickly and easily fit into spaces and workflows designed for humans. Or at least, that’s the goal.

Vetterick emphasizes that the Seattle R&D site deployment is only a very small initial test of Digit’s capabilities. Having the robot move totes from a shelf to a conveyor across a flat, empty floor is not reflective of the use case that Amazon ultimately would like to explore. Amazon is not even sure that Digit will turn out to be the best tool for this particular job, and for a company so focused on efficiency, only the best solution to a specific problem will find a permanent home as part of its workflow. “Amazon isn’t interested in a general-purpose robot,” Vetterick explains. “We are always focused on what problem we’re trying to solve. I wouldn’t want to suggest that Digit is the only way to solve this type of problem. It’s one potential way that we’re interested in experimenting with.”

The idea of a general-purpose humanoid robot that can assist people with whatever tasks they may need is certainly appealing, but as Amazon makes clear, the first step for companies like Agility is to find enough value performing a single task (or perhaps a few different tasks) to achieve sustainable growth. Agility believes that Digit will be able to scale its business by solving Amazon’s empty tote-recycling problem, and the company is confident enough that it’s preparing to open a factory in Salem, Ore. At peak production the plant will eventually be capable of manufacturing 10,000 Digit robots per year.

A menagerie of humanoids

Agility is not alone in its goal to commercially deploy bipedal robots in 2024. At least seven other companies are also working toward this goal, with hundreds of millions of dollars of funding backing them. 1X, Apptronik, Figure, Sanctuary, Tesla, and Unitree all have commercial humanoid robot prototypes.

Despite an influx of money and talent into commercial humanoid robot development over the past two years, there have been no recent fundamental technological breakthroughs that will substantially aid these robots’ development. Sensors and computers are capable enough, but actuators remain complex and expensive, and batteries struggle to power bipedal robots for the length of a work shift.

There are other challenges as well, including creating a robot that’s manufacturable with a resilient supply chain and developing the service infrastructure to support a commercial deployment at scale. The biggest challenge by far is software. It’s not enough to simply build a robot that can do a job—that robot has to do the job with the kind of safety, reliability, and efficiency that will make it desirable as more than an experiment.

There’s no question that Agility Robotics and the other companies developing commercial humanoids have impressive technology, a compelling narrative, and an enormous amount of potential. Whether that potential will translate into humanoid robots in the workplace now rests with companies like Amazon, who seem cautiously optimistic. It would be a fundamental shift in how repetitive labor is done. And now, all the robots have to do is deliver.

This article appears in the January 2024 print issue as “Year of the Humanoid.”

Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We also post a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months. Please send us your events for inclusion.

Cybathlon Challenges: 02 February 2024, ZURICH, SWITZERLANDEurobot Open 2024: 8–11 May 2024, LA ROCHE-SUR-YON, FRANCEICRA 2024: 13–17 May 2024, YOKOHAMA, JAPAN

Enjoy today’s videos!

Wishing you and your loved ones merry Christmas, happy holidays, and a happy New Year from everyone at the Autonomous Systems Lab at ETH Zürich!

[ ASL ]

Merry Christmas and sustainable 2024 from VUB-imec Brubotics & Fysc!

[ BruBotics ]

Thanks, Bram!

Embark on MOMO (Mobile Object Manipulation Operator)’s thrilling quest to ignite joy and excitement! Watch as MOMO skillfully places the tree topper, ensuring that every KIMLAB member’s holiday season is filled with happiness and brightness. Happy Holidays!

[ KIMLAB ]

Merry Christmas from AgileX Robotics and our little wheeled bipedal robot, T-Rex! As we step into 2024, may the joy of the season accompany you throughout the year. Here’s to a festive holiday filled with warmth, laughter, and innovative adventures!

[ AgileX Robotics ]

To celebrate this amazing year, we’d like to share a special holiday video showcasing our most requested demo! We hope it brings you a smile as bright as the lights of the season.

[ Flexiv ]

The Robotnik team is still working to make even smarter, more autonomous and more efficient mobile robotics solutions available to you in 2024. Merry Christmas!

[ Robotnik ]

Season’s Greetings from ABB Robotics!

[ ABB ]

If you were at ICRA you got a sneak peak at this, but here’s a lovely Spot tango from the AI Institute.

[ The Institute ]

CL-1 is one of the few humanoid robots around the world that achieves dynamic stair climbing based on real-time terrain perception, mainly thanks to LimX Dynamics’ advanced motion control and AI algorithms, along with proprietary high-performing actuators and hardware system.

[ LimX Dynamics ]

We wrote about Parallel Systems a couple years ago, and here’s a brief update.

[ Parallel Systems ]

After 1,000 Martian days of exploration, NASA’s Perseverance rover is studying rocks that show several eras in the history of a river delta billions of years old. Scientists are investigating this region of Mars, known as Jezero Crater, to see if they can find evidence of ancient life recorded in the rocks. Perseverance project scientist Ken Farley provides a guided tour of a richly detailed panorama of the rover’s location in November 2023, taken by the Mastcam-Z instrument.

[ NASA ]

It’s been many, many years since we’ve seen a new steampunk robot from I-Wei Huang, but it was worth the wait!

[ CrabFu ]

Ok apparently this is a loop of Digit standing in front of a fireplace for 10 hours, rather than a very impressive demonstration of battery life.

[ Agility ]

Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We also post a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months. Please send us your events for inclusion.

Cybathlon Challenges: 02 February 2024, ZURICH, SWITZERLANDEurobot Open 2024: 8–11 May 2024, LA ROCHE-SUR-YON, FRANCEICRA 2024: 13–17 May 2024, YOKOHAMA, JAPAN

Enjoy today’s videos!

Wishing you and your loved ones merry Christmas, happy holidays, and a happy New Year from everyone at the Autonomous Systems Lab at ETH Zürich!

[ ASL ]

Merry Christmas and sustainable 2024 from VUB-imec Brubotics & Fysc!

[ BruBotics ]

Thanks, Bram!

Embark on MOMO (Mobile Object Manipulation Operator)’s thrilling quest to ignite joy and excitement! Watch as MOMO skillfully places the tree topper, ensuring that every KIMLAB member’s holiday season is filled with happiness and brightness. Happy Holidays!

[ KIMLAB ]

Merry Christmas from AgileX Robotics and our little wheeled bipedal robot, T-Rex! As we step into 2024, may the joy of the season accompany you throughout the year. Here’s to a festive holiday filled with warmth, laughter, and innovative adventures!

[ AgileX Robotics ]

To celebrate this amazing year, we’d like to share a special holiday video showcasing our most requested demo! We hope it brings you a smile as bright as the lights of the season.

[ Flexiv ]

The Robotnik team is still working to make even smarter, more autonomous and more efficient mobile robotics solutions available to you in 2024. Merry Christmas!

[ Robotnik ]

Season’s Greetings from ABB Robotics!

[ ABB ]

If you were at ICRA you got a sneak peak at this, but here’s a lovely Spot tango from the AI Institute.

[ The Institute ]

CL-1 is one of the few humanoid robots around the world that achieves dynamic stair climbing based on real-time terrain perception, mainly thanks to LimX Dynamics’ advanced motion control and AI algorithms, along with proprietary high-performing actuators and hardware system.

[ LimX Dynamics ]

We wrote about Parallel Systems a couple years ago, and here’s a brief update.

[ Parallel Systems ]

After 1,000 Martian days of exploration, NASA’s Perseverance rover is studying rocks that show several eras in the history of a river delta billions of years old. Scientists are investigating this region of Mars, known as Jezero Crater, to see if they can find evidence of ancient life recorded in the rocks. Perseverance project scientist Ken Farley provides a guided tour of a richly detailed panorama of the rover’s location in November 2023, taken by the Mastcam-Z instrument.

[ NASA ]

It’s been many, many years since we’ve seen a new steampunk robot from I-Wei Huang, but it was worth the wait!

[ CrabFu ]

Ok apparently this is a loop of Digit standing in front of a fireplace for 10 hours, rather than a very impressive demonstration of battery life.

[ Agility ]