California-based robotics outfit Figure has today announced its second-generation humanoid robot, which is initially being aimed at production lines in commercial settings, but the company is promising a bipedal butler in our homes in the near future.
Figure was founded in 2022 by entrepreneur Brett Adcock – of Vettery and Archer Aviation – with the aim of bringing a "commercially viable general purpose humanoid robot" to market. We caught up with Adcock last year, publishing a series of three interview pieces, and have followed the progress of its first robot from first steps to learning and performing tasks to joining BMW's workforce, and then gaining OpenAI chattiness.
Figure says that its engineers have since undertaken a "ground-up hardware and software redesign" that includes upgrades to the AI systems, computer vision, the battery pack, electronics, sensors and actuators.
Among the highlights shared are onboard microphones and speakers that cater for one-to-one conversations with humans, powered by custom AI models trained in collaboration with OpenAI. Does this mean that F.02 bots will become a best pal that you can share troubles or life stories with as well as a workmate to help the long day seem shorter thanks to quickfire banter? Possibly, but that's unlikely to be the main focus at present – you can maybe expect something akin to GPT exchanges initially though.
Figure has also cooked in something called a vision language model that will allow the humanoid to make sense of what is captured through the camera lenses and make decisions on what, if anything, needs to be done.
As for the cameras themselves, the F.02 sports six RGB cameras that feed the physical world into its AI-driven vision system to help it understand what's what. These include two in its curved-panel animated face as well as an array around back. The robot also benefits from a 3x increase in computational power and AI inference chops compared to Gen1 that "enables real-world AI tasks to be performed fully autonomously."
Fabric covering here and there together with internal wiring make for a slick outer form wearing cool gun-metal gray. A promo video reveals shoulder joints with 50 Nm (36.8 lb.ft) of torque and a 148-degree range of motion, 150 Nm (110.6 lb.ft) at the knee and 135 degrees, and 150 Nm at the hip with a 195-degree range. And the new humanoid has been treated to the latest iteration of human-scale robot hands, enabling "a wide range of human-like tasks" thanks to 16 degrees of freedom and human-equivalent strength.
Lastly, a new 2.25-kWh custom battery pack in the torso reportedly ups energy delivery by more than 50%, though actual per-charge runtime figures have not been shared at this point.
We recently saw some of the results of Figure 01's training regime as it learned to work at BMW's manufacturing facility in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The F.02 humanoid has also landed on the factory floor, spending the last few weeks "successfully inserted sheet metal parts into specific fixtures, which were then assembled as part of the chassis" as well as undertaking AI data collection and use case training.
"Figure’s goal is to create robots that will not only enhance productivity and efficiency but also improve the quality of life for humans," said the company in a press statement. "The advanced capabilities of Figure 02 bring the company one step closer to achieving that vision."
We're hoping to learn more about the latest Figure humanoid shortly, when we'll share what we know. Meanwhile, the video below has more.
Source: Figure