Figure’s newest robot is already in testing at a BMW plant

OpenAI-backed robotics startup Figure unveiled its second-generation bipedal humanoid robot, the Figure 02 (F.02), on Tuesday.

The automaton is being developed to perform menial tasks on factory floors, but the company has hinted that we might be getting robo-butlers sometime soon.

Introducing Figure 02

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Exclusive pics + technical writeup👇 pic.twitter.com/2cts3pTIcN

— Brett Adcock (@adcock_brett) August 6, 2024

The new F.02 “was a ground-up redesign,” according to Figure co-founder Brett Adcock. The new model is built on an exoskeleton architecture with integrated wiring. It can generate 50 Nm of torque at its shoulders and 150 Nm at both the hip and knee.

The F.02 also features six RGB cameras surrounding its head (two in the front, an array of four more across the back) to provide 360 degree views of its surroundings, a 2.25 KWh battery that runs 50% longer (up to 20 hours), fourth-generation hands with 16 degrees of freedom and human-equivalent strength, and three times the compute and inference power of its predecessor, which “enables real-world AI tasks to be performed fully autonomously.”

The F.02 employs a microphone and speakers in order to facilitate direct conversation with humans, using custom-tuned AI models developed in collaboration with OpenAI. Fingers crossed that they give it Advanced Voice Mode.

The F.02 also leverages a vision language model, similar to what Gemini researchers recently showed off, to help the robot make sense of its visual inputs and make decisions based upon that information.

Founded in 2022, Figure has the same goal as many other robotics startups such as Boston Dynamics, Tesla’s Optimus division, or Agility Robotics: bringing a “commercially viable general purpose humanoid robot” to market.

Figure has already begun testing its first-generation robots, the Figure 01, in BMW’s sprawling Spartanburg, South Carolina, production facility, which is the largest automotive exporter in the U.S. and employs more than 11,000 people.

Those robots are currently tasked with moving boxes of parts around the plant’s body shop but are expected to begin helping performing sheet metal work and warehouse operations over the next two years. And if the demo video above is any indication, the F.02’s have now joined them on the factory floor.