Agility Robotics, FORT Robotics announce strategic partnership to advance humanoid robot safety

Agility Robotics and FORT Robotics 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 companies said that the partnership will deepen a historical, multi-year engagement that continues to evolve.

Enhancing humanoid robot safety

Agility and FORT said that their relationship 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 companies said that 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.

Agility and FORT said that 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, including:

• Joint hardware development
• Technical engineering
• Regulatory compliance
• And deployment support

The companies said that the partnership will reinforce 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.

From component supplier to safety partner

Agility said that it has embedded FORT's technology in several past versions of Digit, and engaged FORT earlier in 2026 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, the company said that Digit 5 can operate 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. Agility and FORT said that 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 partnership between Agility and FORT

The companies said that 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.