Safety still the main hurdle for humanoid robot industry, says Agility CEO

U.S. company looking beyond home market to Europe and Asia

Agility's Digit humanoid robot, like others in the industry, is not yet ready to work shoulder-to-shoulder with humans. (Photo courtesy of Agility Robotics)

CHENG TING-FANG and LAULY LI

March 13, 2025 13:28 JST

BARCELONA, Spain -- Ensuring humanoid robots can operate safely around people is the biggest challenge facing the industry that develops them, according to Agility Robotics.

Peggy Johnson, CEO of the U.S.-based humanoid robot unicorn, told Nikkei Asia that access to massive real-time data analysis is needed to train robots and make sure they can work safely in unconfined environments.