Toyota’s Canadian manufacturing subsidiary has implemented a robots-as-a-service agreement by employing seven humanoid robots in a RAV4 SUV production plant following a year-long trial. “After evaluating various robots, we are thrilled to deploy Digit to enhance the team member experience and further boost operational efficiency in our manufacturing facilities,” stated Tim Hollander, President of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada.
The robots, known as Digit, are manufactured by Agility Robotics, established from Oregon State University in 2015. Designed for industrial environments without human presence, Digit often connects two separate automated production lines by unloading auto part totes from an automated warehouse device.
Despite only seven robots performing manual tasks, the actual application of humanoid robots in real workplaces is rare and challenging, as lab capability demonstrations differ from practical workplace integration, involving maintenance and charging complexities.
“When tech companies genuinely understand field tasks and workflows, we will observe a significant rise in adoption,” said Ram Devarajulu, a VP at Cambridge Consultants, at the Humanoids Summit in late 2025. Agility Robotics is at the forefront of bringing robots out of labs with Digits operating similarly for companies like GXO, Schaeffler, and Amazon. They offer a proprietary cloud-based software called Arc for managing robot fleets, with AI crucial for lowering deployment costs. “Deployment costs can exceed the robot’s price greatly,” mentioned Agility’s CTO Pras Velagapudi in a previous interview, emphasizing AI’s role in reducing deployment time and cost, and enhancing performance levels.
Toyota and Agility aim to explore new applications to relieve human workers of repetitive tasks, emphasizing more valuable work, while developing a next-generation robot safe to operate alongside humans, as current humanoid robots capable of heavy lifting are not reliable for autonomous operation around people.
Competitor Figure.AI tested its Figure 02 robots in a BMW factory, unloading 90,000 parts over ten months. Other companies involved in humanoid pilot programs include Apptronic, Unitree, Tesla, Boston Dynamics, 1X Technology, and Reflex Robotics.