TORONTO — Toyota is putting humanoid robots from U.S. firm Agility Robotics onto the factory floor at one of its Ontario auto plants, a significant step for the use of the machines in Canadian manufacturing. 

Agility’s Digit robots are designed for “highly repetitive, very physical tasks where there exist very large labour gaps,” said chief business officer Daniel Diez. Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada will roll out seven of the humanoids at its facility in Woodstock, Ont. to help keep its assembly lines supplied with parts.

The robots will walk up and down the factory’s aisles, picking up bins of components from storage racks and putting them onto the tuggers that deliver them to workers. They will also off-load and stack empty containers. The Digits will take on “extremely repetitive and physically taxing tasks to help reduce strain on our employees, and free them to do more value-added work in the production facility,” said Toyota spokesperson Michael Bouliane.

Human workers with similar jobs tend to have higher rates of absenteeism and turnover, said Diez.

The Woodstock facility, which came online in late 2008, produces gas-powered and hybrid versions of the Toyota RAV4. Toyota, which also has two plants in Cambridge, Ont., is the largest carmaker in Canada. 

The Japanese auto giant previously ran Digit through a pilot project at Woodstock, and has tested other robots. Agility hopes to expand its deployment with Toyota, either at the same facility or other plants in Canada. The automaker is renting the robots, and paying to use the software platform that controls, monitors and upgrades them. Diez said Agility typically signs three-year contracts, and charges a monthly price that’s less than what a client would pay a human employee.   

The use of robots to move things around industrial facilities isn’t new. Agility client Amazon, for example, has long used its own wheeled machines to pull and place inventory in its warehouses. These more basic robots need perfectly level terrain, can’t handle stairs, and tip over if overloaded, said Diez. 

Humanoid robots, by contrast, can maneuver in tight spaces and lift heavy weights. While more adaptable than traditional industrial robots, they’re still not dexterous enough to do frontline manufacturing tasks that require millimetre-perfect precision.

Founded in 2015, Agility is based in Salem, Ore. after it spun out of Oregon State University. The firm had raised US$283 million by June last year, according to PitchBook data. At the time it was reportedly in discussions for a US$400-million round valuing it at US$1.75-billion. Backers include the venture funds of major tech firms including Amazon, Nvidia, Sony and TDK, as well as Vancouver-headquartered Humanoid Global Holdings, a publicly traded investment manager.

Agility plans to launch a new version of Digit in December that will be able to lift up to 25 kilograms. The updated robot will also be able to move about more freely in areas used by humans; a major breakthrough, Diez said. Humanoid robots are currently confined to plexiglass safety cages because they can’t detect when a person enters their space. That limits their reach.

“It’ll be the first time where you can really start to expect scale deployments of these robots,” Diez claimed.

Agility is far from the only humanoid manufacturer trying to land carmakers as clients. Tesla and Hyundai, via its acquisition of Boston Dynamics, are both making their own humanoid robots. BMW has tested humanoids from Brookfield-backed Figure at a South Carolina factory. And Canadian parts maker Magna has piloted machines from Vancouver’s Sanctuary AI, in which it has also invested.

Diez said Agility is receiving a lot of interest from the automotive industry, which is facing worker shortages in major manufacturing countries like Canada, Germany, Japan, Korea and the U.S. “These are not popular jobs, and so these robots right now could really fill massive labour gaps,” he said.

Canada’s automaking sector is facing significant challenges as a result of tariffs imposed by the Trump administration, with U.S. giants GM and Stellantis stopping some manufacturing here or shifting it across the border. That leaves Toyota and Honda making up an ever-larger share of Canadian car and truck production.