Agility Robotics is wrapping up development of a factory in Salem, Oregon, the place it plans to mass produce its first line of humanoid robots, known as Digit. Each robot has two legs and two arms and is engineered to maneuver freely and work alongside people in warehouses and factories.

The 70,000-square-foot facility, which the corporate is calling the “RoboFab,” is the primary of its form, in keeping with Damion Shelton, co-founder and CEO of Agility Robotics.

COO Aindrea Campbell, who was previously Apple’s senior director of iPad operations and an engineering supervisor at Ford, informed CNBC that the ability can have a 10,000 unit annual max capability when it is totally constructed out and can make use of greater than 500 individuals. For now, although, Agility Robotics is centered on the set up and testing of its first manufacturing strains.

“It’s a really big endeavor, not something where you flick a switch and suddenly turn it on,” Campbell mentioned. “There’s kind of a ramp-up process. The inflection point today is that we’re opening the factory, installing the production lines and starting to grow capacity and scale with something that’s never been done before.”

Funded by DCVC and Playground Global amongst enterprise buyers, Agility Robotics beat would-be opponents to the punch, together with Tesla with its Optimus initiative, by finishing improvement of manufacturing prototype humanoid robots and standing up a factory the place it could actually mass produce them.

Shelton informed CNBC that his group developed Digit with a human type issue in order that the robots can raise, type and maneuver whereas staying balanced, and they also might function in environments the place steps or different constructions might in any other case restrict using robotics. The robots are powered with rechargeable lithium ion batteries.

One factor Digit lacks is a five-fingered hand — as an alternative, the robot’s palms look extra like a claw or mitten.

“Human style hands are very complex,” Shelton mentioned. “When I see robots that have five fingers, I think, ‘Oh, great. Someone built a robot, then they built two more robots onto that robot.’ You should have a ‘hand’ that is no more complex than you need for the job.”

Digit can traverse stairs, crouch into tight areas, unload containers and transfer supplies onto or off of a pallet or a conveyor, then assist to type and divide materials onto different pallets, in keeping with Agility. The firm plans to place the robots to make use of transporting supplies round its personal factory, Campbell mentioned. Agility’s most popular companions might be first to obtain the robots subsequent yr, and the corporate is solely promoting — not renting or leasing — the methods within the close to time period.

Asked if the corporate is involved that its know-how might “steal jobs” from individuals, Shelton mentioned he envisions Digit permitting manufacturing and logistics companies to fulfill rising demand as recruiting stays a problem and as many staff retire or choose to go away the business.

Matt Ocko, managing associate at DCVC and an investor in Agility, informed CNBC that Digit ought to “fill millions of unmet roles that human beings don’t want.” At the identical time, he emphasised, Agility Robotics has designed its humanoid robots to work safely and autonomously as a “robotic co-worker.”