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A new development has occurred in the race to bring AI-driven humanoid robots into homes and workplaces around the world. Figure, which received $675 million in funding from OpenAI and others in the final round in February, has released a preview video for its latest model, “Figure 02,” with the date August 6, 2024.
As you can see from the video, there’s not much detail but a lot of atmosphere and close-ups, showing what appear to be the robot’s joints and limbs, an interesting, presumably flexible mesh design for the robot’s body, and labels indicating a torque rating of up to 150Nm (Newton-meters, or, according to Google’s AI overview, “the torque produced when 1 Newton of force is applied perpendicular to the end of a lever arm one meter long”) and “ROM” (which I think of as a “range of motion” of up to 195 degrees out of a total of 360 degrees).
Founder Brett Adcock also posted on his X/Twitter account that Figure 02 is “the most advanced humanoid robot on Earth.”
Backed by leading technology and AI companies
Adcock, an entrepreneur whose previous ventures include transformative startups Archer Aviation and jobs marketplace Vettery, founded Figure AI in 2022.
March 2023, A person emerges from stealth mode Introducing Figure 01, a general-purpose humanoid robot designed to address the global labor shortage by performing tasks across a variety of industries, including manufacturing, logistics, warehousing, and retail.
Figure AI has a team of 40 industry experts, including CTO Dr Jerry Pratt, and completed the full-scale creation of the humanoid in just six months. Adcock believes robots will increase productivity and safety by taking on dangerous and undesirable jobs, ultimately contributing to a more automated and efficient future, but he insists robots will never be used as weapons.
In addition to OpenAI, the company’s investors and backers include NVidia, Microsoft, Intel Capital, and Bezos Expeditions (the personal fund of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos). The company signed a contract with BMW Manufacturing earlier this year. Ahead of the release of OpenAI’s new flagship products, GPT-4o and GPT-4o mini, the company showed off an impressive integration with OpenAI’s GPT-4V or vision model within Figure’s 01 robot.
Presumably, Figure 02 will feature one of the new OpenAI models, one of the leading names, to guide its movements and interactions.
The race to invent humanoid robots heats up
Figure has been a bit quiet lately, even as other companies have been unveiling and showing off designs for AI-powered humanoid robots that they hope will assist humans in environments such as warehouses, factories, industrial plants, fulfillment centers, nursing homes, retail stores, healthcare facilities, and of course, private homes.
Humanoid robots have long been the stuff of science fiction, but their debut as commercial products has been slow and marred by expensive designs that were largely confined to research environments. That’s changing, however, thanks to generative AI – or more specifically, large-scale language models (LLMs) and multi-modal AI models that can quickly analyze live video and audio inputs and respond with human-like voices and unique movements.
Indeed, billionaire and multi-company owner Elon Musk recently stated, with his usual boisterous bravado and ambitious goal-setting: There is a market for over 10 billion humanoid robots on Earth (more than one per person) — he wanted to get a share, or at least some of it, in Tesla Motors, the electric car and AI company that is also building a humanoid robot that rivals the figurines. Tesla called Optimus).
moreover, NVIDIA The company showed off new improvements to training the AI that guides humanoid robots through its Project GR00T effort, using an Apple Vision Pro headset worn by a human remote operator to guide the robot through the right movements.
And before that, humanoid robot pioneer Boston Dynamics previewed an updated version of its Atlas humanoid robot with electric motors instead of hydraulic actuators — presumably resulting in a cheaper, quieter, more reliable, and more sturdy robot.
So the competition in this space is likely to intensify, but with such big backers and positive momentum, Figure seems well-positioned to continue to push forward with its efforts in this space.
