A factory that aims to create 10,000 robots per year that can walk and work for companies like Amazon will soon be opening in the Pacific Northwest. Agility Robotics plans to move from its current factory in Oregon to a new, much larger, plant in Salem. Dubbed the “RoboFab” plant, Agility Robotics will become one of the largest producers of robotics in the United States.

“We’ve placed a very high priority on just getting robots out there as fast as possible,” Agility Robotics CEO Damion Shelton explained. “Our big plan is that we want to get to general-purpose humanoids as soon as we can.”

Amazon is currently testing Agility Robotics “Digit” model in its factories. Agility is part of the Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund and has been developing Digit for several years. Digit is a human-centric, multi purpose robot created for logistics work. It can handle items and is similar in size to its human colleagues. Initially its role will be to complete the monotonous and highly repetitive process of picking up and moving empty totes, and not (currently) to replace the Amazon workforce.

“Digit’s size and shape are well-suited for buildings that are designed for humans, and we believe that there is a big opportunity to scale a mobile manipulator solution,” said Emily Vetterick, Amazon Director of Engineering. “Collaborative robotics solutions like Digit support workplace safety and help Amazon deliver to customers faster, while creating new opportunities and career paths for our employees.”

To date, Agility has only produced 100 robots, but the move to the new RoboFab plant will enable the company to fill the growing backlog for Digit and scale up production dramatically.

Where this will leave human workers as the development of humanoids increases, we don’t know, although Amazon has attempted to comfort workers by claiming that the 750,000 robots it uses, generated 700 new jobs for humans.

On the other side of the world China is also encouraging its private sector to rapidly increase facilities and output of humanoid robots to become the world leader by 2027. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released the following statement asking the manufacturing sector to “establish a humanoid robot innovation system, make breakthroughs in several key technologies and ensure the safe and effective supply of core components by 2025, and to become the global leader in the tech by 2027.”

In addition it requested development of the “brain,” “cerebellum,” and “limbs” of humanoid robots aided by Artificial Intelligence capabilities, that could be used in “harsh” or dangerous conditions, not just as support in factories.

The mass production of humanoids is bringing the age of the robot closer, and as their uses become more obvious in areas outside of the factory, could the human race eventually become unemployed? Could it become threatened by a humanoid military, particularly if AI is built into it?