AGCO humanoid robot pilot sends Digit to a Kansas plant in 2027
The AGCO humanoid robot pilot, announced on October 20, 2026, will put Agility Robotics' Digit to work at AGCO's production facility in Hesston, Kansas, starting in 2027. The farm machinery maker signed a commercial agreement to test the robot on sorting and stacking parts and placing totes for storage. For manufacturers, it is a test of whether a humanoid can take repetitive, physically demanding jobs off a factory floor without a costly rebuild of the plant.
What problem AGCO wants a humanoid robot to solve
AGCO wants to take repetitive, strenuous and hazardous work off its factory floor. The Duluth, Georgia, maker of agricultural machinery, whose brands include Fendt, Massey Ferguson, PTx and Valtra, says the pilot supports its effort to build more flexible, intelligent factories.
Thomas Enghof, AGCO's director of manufacturing technology, described the target as complex, human-centric workflows, where people do jobs that are hard to automate with fixed equipment. Agility designed Digit for repetitive, physically demanding tasks in work environments built around people.
"This strategic relationship views humanoid robotics and AI as essential 'teammates' in building flexible, intelligent factories." — Thomas Enghof, director of manufacturing technology at AGCO
What AGCO signed with Agility Robotics
AGCO and Agility Robotics signed a commercial agreement, announced on October 20, 2026, for a US pilot of the Digit humanoid robot. The pilot is expected to begin in 2027 at AGCO's production facility in Hesston, Kansas.
Agility, headquartered in Salem, Oregon, with offices in Pittsburgh and Fremont, California, calls Digit the first multi-purpose, human-centric robot that is commercially deployed today. The company says Digit has more than 65,000 hours of real-world operation. The announcement does not give the value of the agreement or the number of robots in the pilot.
How Digit will work in the Hesston plant
Digit will start with simple, repeated material handling. According to the companies, the robot will initially support assembly and production operations by sorting and stacking parts and by placing totes for storage.
Agility says Digit uses artificial intelligence to learn and adapt as workflows change. The robots can be paired with Agility Arc, the company's cloud-based platform for deploying and managing robot fleets. Agility says that combination lets companies add automation to essential operations without extensive infrastructure changes or costly facility upgrades.
What the pilot has measured so far
There are no results yet, because the pilot has not started. AGCO and Agility have published no figures on time saved, cost, output or injuries avoided at Hesston.
What the companies state are goals. They expect Digit to improve ergonomic safety and operational efficiency and to free employees for skill-driven work. Those are aims for a pilot that begins in 2027, not measured outcomes. The record Agility points to comes from other customers: AGCO joins Toyota, GXO and Schaeffler among the companies deploying Digit.
What it means for manufacturers weighing humanoid robots
For a manufacturer, the task in this pilot is common to almost any assembly plant: moving parts and totes between stations. Those jobs are physically demanding and repetitive, and they are often the first a plant would hand to a machine if the machine fit the existing space.
The claim worth watching is the one Agility makes about installation: automation without costly facility upgrades. If the Hesston pilot confirms it, a plant could add robots to a line without rebuilding it.
Agility is also changing as a supplier. Shortly before the AGCO deal, it unveiled Digit 5, with new legs, upgraded batteries and a more comprehensive safety architecture, and it said it is exploring wheeled robots. It plans to go public through a merger with Churchill Capital Corp XI, expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026, and to trade on Nasdaq as AGLT.
Questions and answers
When will AGCO start using Digit robots?
The pilot is expected to begin in 2027 at AGCO's production facility in Hesston, Kansas. The companies have not given a more exact start date.
What tasks will Digit do at the Hesston plant?
Digit will initially sort and stack parts and place totes for storage, supporting assembly and production operations. AGCO describes the wider aim as absorbing repetitive, strenuous or hazardous tasks.
Which other companies use Agility's Digit robot?
Agility names Toyota, GXO and Schaeffler among the companies deploying its humanoid robots, and says Digit has logged more than 65,000 hours of real-world operation.
MOZGII view
How we would build it
A humanoid robot in a factory is first a test of fit, not of intelligence. The question at Hesston is whether Digit can pick up parts and totes where people put them today, at the pace the line needs, without the plant changing around it. If we were building the software side of a pilot like this, we would start with the task list: every pick, every place, every tote, each with its start point, end point and the time a person takes to do it now.
We would connect the robot's task queue to the plant's production schedule, so Digit works on the parts the line needs next rather than on a fixed loop. A supervisor on each shift would review exceptions: a dropped part, a misplaced tote, a stop. Every exception would go into a log the team reads weekly, because those cases decide whether the pilot grows.
It would break at the edges of the routine. A new part shape, a damaged tote or a crowded aisle are where a robot that learns from repeated work slows down or stops. Safety rules for people working near the robot would need their own review before the first shift.
The one number we would watch is the share of each shift the robot spends doing useful work, against the hours it is down or waiting. Next, we would build a simple planner that shows supervisors which tasks to move to the robot and which to keep with people.
Sources
Where the facts in this story come from.
- 01AGCO and Agility Robotics Advance Smart Manufacturing with Humanoid Robot Pilot in Hesston, Kansas, Facilityprnewswire.com
- 02AGCO to deploy Agility Digit humanoid in Kansas factory - The Robot Reporttherobotreport.com
- 03AGCO and Agility Robotics Advance Smart Manufacturing with Humanoid Robot Pilot in Hesston, Kansas, Facilityprnewswire.com