Humanoid robots get attention for their walking, their hands and their AI. What decides whether a business actually buys one is far duller: how long it can work before it has to stop and charge. Agility Robotics, one of the few companies with humanoids already doing paid work, thinks it has found an answer in Cambridge.
The numbers
Agility has chosen Nyobolt, a Cambridge, UK battery company founded in 2019, to supply a fast-charging system for its new Digit 5 robot. The pack gives 90 minutes of running time and recharges in just nine minutes. That is a 10:1 ratio of work to charging, against roughly 2:1 for the previous Digit 4.
In practice, Agility says, Digit 5 should manage more than 20 hours of productive work in a 24-hour day, which is more than two full shifts. "For our customers, Digit's uptime is the business case," said Daniel Diez, Agility's chief business officer.
Why it matters
A robot that works for an hour and charges for half an hour needs a spare robot to cover the gap, which doubles the cost of the job. A robot that tops up in nine minutes during a natural pause can stay on the line almost all day. For warehouses and factories weighing a humanoid against a human worker or a conventional machine, that difference can make or break the sums.
Nyobolt says its edge comes from its own anode materials, cell design and built-in power electronics, which let it charge very quickly without cooking the battery or shortening its life. Its chief executive, Sai Shivareddy, said Digit 5 needed "more power from a smaller, lighter pack in environments where reliability isn't optional." The company reached a $1 billion valuation earlier this year after raising $60 million.
When we'll see it
Agility expects early customers to get Digit 5 with Nyobolt's batteries in the first half of 2027, with wider availability over the following six to nine months. It's a reminder that Britain does not need to build the whole robot to matter in this race. Supplying the parts that make humanoids economic could be just as valuable.