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After promoting Fetch Robotics to Zebra Technologies in 2021 for $290 million, many have questioned what Melonee Wise would do subsequent. Sure, she had been serving as Zebra’s VP & GM of Robotics Automation, however that was extra a formality as a part of the acquisition than the rest.
Well, right now we obtained the reply. Wise is now the CTO of Agility Robotics. Agility is growing the Digit humanoid robotic and is concentrating on warehouse functions as its first real-world duties. Wise will probably be engaged on software program and expertise methods for deploying fleets of Digits in warehouses everywhere in the nation.
Wise is sort of accustomed to that market, in fact, after constructing autonomous cell robots (AMRs) for warehousing functions at Fetch since founding the corporate in 2015. This transfer may assist improve Agility’s play within the logistics house. According to Agility, “Melonee brings as much (or more) experience in building and deploying robot fleets than just about anyone on the planet.”
Melonee Wise, CTO, Agility Robotics
Jonathan Hurst, co-founder of Agility Robotics, beforehand held the title of CTO. Hurst lately keynoted the Robotics Summit & Expo, which is produced by The Robot Report. With the hiring of Wise, Hurst will transition his function into chief robotics officer (CRO). Hurst’s bipedal locomotion analysis at Oregon State University is the idea on which Agility was created. Agility mentioned this transfer will to extra intently match with Hurst’s day-to-day work: setting Agility’s analysis and growth roadmap, cultivating the innovation pipeline, shepherding Digit’s industrial design, and nurturing the corporate’s general model identification.
“Agility has had a great deal of highlights recently, but perhaps the most significant is the strategic growth of our leadership team over the past year and the addition of game-changing expertise that will position Agility for long-term success,” mentioned Damion Shelton, CEO, Agility Robotics. “We’ve recently added a CCO, CFO, and COO, and created the exciting new CRO organization led by my co-founder Jonathan Hurst. Today, we’re thrilled to cap off this incredible year of leadership growth by welcoming industry luminary and well-known roboticist Melonee Wise to the team as our new CTO.”
Agility introduced quite a few different govt appointments as properly:
- Renuka Ayer, Chief Financial Officer (joined October 2022)
- Rich Bohne, Chief Commercial Officer (joined June 2022)
- Aindrea Campbell, Chief Operations Officer (joined January 2023)
- Liz Clinkenbeard, VP of Communications (joined December 2022)
- Pras Velegapudi, VP of Innovation and Distinguished Engineer (joined May 2023)
Digit stands about 5 ft 9 inches tall and weighs about 140 lb. Updates within the newest era embody newly designed finish effectors optimized for reaching excessive/low, pulling, selecting up, and inserting objects generally present in e-commerce and transport warehouses, like plastic totes. Digit additionally has a brand new head with LED animated eyes, which permit for improved human-robot interplay similar to utilizing easy expressions to convey info and intent. For instance, the brand new Digit makes use of physique language and eye motion to point which route it’s about to show.
In April 2022, Agility raised $150 million in Series B financing. DCVC and Playground Global led the funding spherical, which additionally included participation from the Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund.