Agility Robotics on Thursday confirmed that it has laid off a “small quantity” of workers. The well-funded Oregon-based agency says the job loss is a part of a company-wide deal with commercialization efforts.

“As a part of Agility’s ongoing efforts to construction the corporate for fulfillment, we now have parted methods with a small variety of workers that weren’t central to core product improvement and commercialization,” the corporate wrote in an announcement offered to TechCrunch. “On the identical time, we’re targeted on assembly the extraordinary demand for bipedal robots throughout industrial use instances. Meaning ramping up manufacturing of Digit whereas persevering with to win top-tier world clients, and including new roles that meet these objectives. We imagine right now’s actions will enable us to deal with the areas that drive productization, commercialization, and manufacturing of Digit.”

Agility was forward of the commercial humanoid curve with its bipedal robotic, Digit. The agency was spun out of analysis carried out at Oregon State College. There’s been no lack of curiosity in its spectacular legged robots over time. Ford was an early champion, as Agility explored Digit’s last-mile-delivery potential. Finally, nevertheless, these efforts had been positioned on the again burner, as the corporate shifted focus to understaffed warehouses.

There’s been no lack of funding for Agility’s efforts, regardless of a normal slowdown in investments in and adoption of robotic programs, each of which might be seen as corrections following a large pandemic-fueled growth.

Two years in the past this month, the corporate introduced a $150 million Sequence B. Amazon notably participated within the spherical by means of its Industrial Innovation Fund. The retail big subsequently introduced that it might pilot Digits as a part of its success heart workflow. The pilots have since ended, however neither firm has introduced subsequent steps.

Quite a lot of different humanoid robotics corporations have introduced their very own pilots in current months, together with Determine with BMW and Apptronik with Mercedes. Final month at Modex, Agility showcased updates to Digit’s finish effectors designed particularly for automotive manufacturing workflows.

Agility has additionally made a lot of high-profile hires over the previous 12 months, together with Magic Leap CEO Peggy Johnson becoming a member of as chief govt, Fetch CEO Melonee Sensible as CTO and former Apple and Ford govt Aindrea Campbell in as COO.

The corporate’s jobs web page presently lists 5 open roles, largely targeted on engineering and manufacturing.