Agility Robotics is building walking, working robots in Salem, Oregon

To a robot, it might look like something from a horror film.

Parts — a battery, circuit boards and wiring —are arrayed in pieces on a white lab bench. Metallic arms and legs lay inert on nearby shelves. A steady, mysterious thump resonates in the distance.

These aren’t dismembered machines, though. These are the pieces of robots that are waiting to be born in Agility Robotics’ new, 70,000-square-foot “RoboFab” in Salem.

Agility Robotics spun out of Oregon State University a decade ago. It opened the Salem factory last year to mass produce hundreds of copies of robot called Digit, which walks around on two legs like people do.

Digit stands 5 feet, 9 inches tall, with an aqua-green torso, metallic grey limbs, and brightly glowing rectangular eyes. Its every step makes that resonate thump