How Full-Stack Autonomy Helps Digit Navigate Indoor Spaces

The technology behind Digit will enable it to work in tandem with people in human spaces and to respond to unanticipated activities within its immediate sphere of work. Digit can navigate an indoor environment that it’s never encountered before without needing to pre-map where it’s going. Digit also doesn’t rely on digital markers to assist it with obstacle avoidance. Waypoints are defined relative to the global reference frame determined at power-up. 

Digit displays stability, balance, and responsiveness as it moves through a room. It goes where it’s told to go and stops when it encounters an unexpected obstacle, such as an office worker passing through a group of cubicles or a forklift moving through a warehouse. It recognizes when the obstacle has moved out of the way and resumes its journey accordingly. How is this accomplished? Through full-stack autonomy.

Digit’s hardware system has been developed in concert with on-board and off-board software in order to ensure that all of Digit’s technologies are optimized to complement each other, rather than one methodology having to pick up slack for another.