Jonathan Hurst is an American roboticist, professor of robotics at Oregon State University, and co-founder and chief robot officer of Agility Robotics. He led the development of the ATRIAS and Cassie bipedal-locomotion research platforms at the Oregon State Dynamic Robotics Laboratory between 2009 and 2019, which provided the technical lineage for the Digit commercial humanoid robot. As of May 2026 he holds the chief-robot-officer role at Agility Robotics alongside his continuing faculty appointment at Oregon State, serving as the company's senior technical-research executive and academic anchor for its locomotion-and-controls research program.
At a glance
- Education: Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering, Carnegie Mellon University (early 2000s); Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy in robotics, Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute (PhD 2008), advised by Jessica Hodgins.
- Current role: Co-founder and Chief Robot Officer of Agility Robotics since 2015; Professor of Robotics at Oregon State University since 2008.
- Notable prior affiliations: Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute PhD student, completed July 2008; Oregon State Dynamic Robotics Laboratory founder and lead, 2008 to present; co-founder of the Oregon State University Robotics Institute.
- Key contributions: ATRIAS bipedal robot (2009 to 2016), Cassie bipedal robot (2017 to 2019), Digit commercial bipedal humanoid (2019 to present); doctoral thesis on the role of compliance in legged locomotion; co-founder of the Oregon State Robotics Program, the third US institution to offer Robotics PhD and MS degrees.
- LinkedIn: jonathanwhurst
Origins
Hurst was raised in Fort Collins, Colorado. He entered Carnegie Mellon University for undergraduate study and completed a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering, then continued at the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute for his Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in robotics. His doctoral research, advised by Jessica Hodgins, focused on the role and implementation of compliance in legged locomotion. The thesis, completed in July 2008, framed the spring-mass model of bipedal motion that subsequently anchored the design philosophy of the ATRIAS and Cassie robotic platforms.
Hurst joined Oregon State University in 2008 as the institution's first robotics faculty member, serving as an assistant professor in the School of Mechanical, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering. The hire established the foundation for what would become the Oregon State Robotics Program, which by the mid-2010s had grown into one of the three US institutions offering both Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in robotics.
Career
The first major research artifact of Hurst's Oregon State tenure was ATRIAS, a bipedal robot built between 2009 and 2016 by the Dynamic Robotics Laboratory. ATRIAS was developed under multiple grants and demonstrated as the first robot to reproduce human walking gait dynamics under the spring-mass model. Hurst characterized ATRIAS as "chock-full of design mistakes" in retrospective coverage, reflecting the platform's role as a research vehicle rather than a deployable product. ATRIAS appeared at the DARPA Robotics Challenge in Pomona, California in May 2015 and accumulated several published demonstrations of bipedal locomotion using compliant-leg architecture.
Cassie, the second-generation bipedal platform, was developed under a 16-month, $1 million Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) grant and released in 2017. The platform corrected the design limitations of ATRIAS, replacing the opposing-motor architecture with a more efficient layout and adding steering, feet, and sealing for outdoor operation. Cassie was sold as a research platform to approximately a dozen academic robotics groups, including Carnegie Mellon, MIT CSAIL, and other leading laboratories. The platform anchored a series of published demonstrations including a world-record 100-meter dash for a bipedal robot using a learned locomotion policy and the first sub-six-minute 5K completion for a bipedal robot.
Agility Robotics was founded in 2015 as a commercial spinout from the Dynamic Robotics Laboratory, with Hurst as co-founder alongside Damion Shelton (his Carnegie Mellon graduate-school classmate) and Mikhail Jones (Hurst's Oregon State graduate student and the lead developer of the ATRIAS control software). Hurst held the chief-technology-officer title initially and continues as co-founder and chief robot officer, the senior technical-research executive role established in 2023 alongside the appointment of Melonee Wise as chief technology officer. The Cassie platform retired commercially in 2019 as Agility transitioned to the Digit commercial humanoid, which added a torso, arms, and end-effectors on top of the Cassie-derived bipedal architecture.
Hurst has continued his faculty role at Oregon State University through the Agility Robotics period, balancing academic research leadership in the Dynamic Robotics Laboratory with the senior technical-and-research executive role at the company. The dual affiliation has been a structural element of the company's positioning as a research-lineage commercial entity, with Hurst serving as the academic anchor for the locomotion-and-controls research lineage that distinguishes Agility from humanoid-robotics competitors that started from upper-body manipulation rather than from bipedal-locomotion theory.
Affiliations
- Carnegie Mellon University: Undergraduate and graduate student in mechanical engineering and robotics, early 2000s to 2008.
- Oregon State University: Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor of Robotics, 2008 to present; founder of the Dynamic Robotics Laboratory; co-founder of the Oregon State University Robotics Institute and Robotics Program.
- Agility Robotics: Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer (2015 to 2023), Chief Robot Officer (2023 to present).
Notable contributions
- PhD thesis, "The Role and Implementation of Compliance in Legged Locomotion" (July 2008). Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute doctoral research advised by Jessica Hodgins, which framed the spring-mass model of bipedal motion that subsequently anchored the ATRIAS and Cassie platforms.
- ATRIAS bipedal robot (2009 to 2016). The first robot to reproduce human walking gait dynamics under the spring-mass model, developed at the Dynamic Robotics Laboratory and demonstrated at the DARPA Robotics Challenge in May 2015.
- Cassie bipedal robot (2017 to 2019). The second-generation Dynamic Robotics Laboratory platform, sold to approximately a dozen academic robotics groups, used to achieve a world-record 100-meter dash for a bipedal robot using a learned locomotion policy.
- Digit commercial bipedal humanoid (2019 to present). The Cassie-derived commercial humanoid platform deployed at Amazon Sumner since October 2023 and at adjacent warehouse-and-logistics customers including GXO Logistics.
- Oregon State University Robotics Program co-founding (early 2010s). Co-founded the institution's Robotics Program, the third US institution to offer PhD and MS degrees in robotics, which by the mid-2020s had grown to over 100 students and a dedicated building.
- Awards. 2012 Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Innovators Award; 2012 International Conference on Climbing and Walking Robots Best Technical Paper; 2014 Oregon State College of Engineering Engelbrecht Young Faculty Award; 2018 Oregon State University Faculty Innovator Award.
Open questions
- Locomotion-research lineage versus foundation-model approach. Agility Robotics' technical positioning rests on the locomotion-and-controls research lineage that Hurst has anchored since 2008, in contrast to the general-purpose-foundation-model positioning pursued by Figure AI and the AI-stack partnerships at Apptronik. Whether the locomotion-specialist positioning produces better warehouse-task unit economics than the foundation-model approaches over the next 18 months is an open empirical question.
- Academic versus commercial balance. Hurst has maintained the Oregon State faculty appointment alongside the Agility chief-robot-officer role since 2015. Whether the dual affiliation continues as the company's production-scale-up phase intensifies, or whether one role consolidates, will indicate how the company manages its research-lineage anchor at scale.
- Next-generation Digit platform. The Cassie-to-Digit architectural transition (adding torso, arms, and end-effectors on top of the bipedal platform) defined the company's commercial product line through 2026. Whether Hurst's research lineage produces a successor platform with materially different design choices, and on what timeline, is the leading product-side signal for the company's medium-term trajectory.
- Bipedal-locomotion research community impact. The Cassie platform and the subsequent learned-locomotion-policy demonstrations have shaped the bipedal-robotics research agenda across multiple US laboratories. Whether the academic spillover from Hurst's group continues at the rate established between 2017 and 2024, or shifts as research attention moves toward end-to-end learned manipulation and whole-body control, will indicate the scientific durability of the spring-mass-model framing.
Sources
- Jonathan Hurst faculty page, Oregon State University College of Engineering. The official faculty profile covering education, research interests, and awards.
- Jonathan Hurst CV. Curriculum vitae with publication record, advising history, and grant funding.
- Cassie Steps into the limelight, Oregon State University. Account of the Cassie platform's development under the DARPA grant.
- Bipedal robot developed at Oregon State makes history by learning to run, completing 5K. Oregon State newsroom coverage of the learned-locomotion-policy demonstration on Cassie.
- Agility Robotics evolves from OSU research, aims to revolutionize robot mobility. Oregon State coverage of the commercial spinout origin.
- Jonathan Hurst at the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute. Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute page covering his doctoral period.
- Companion profile: Agility Robotics for the commercial entity that emerged from the Dynamic Robotics Laboratory research lineage.
