Face to face with Figure's new humanoid robot

Much has changed in the 16 months since I last set foot in Figure’s Sunnyvale headquarters. For one thing, there’s signage on the outside of what was an otherwise non-descript Silicon Valley office building in an equally non-descript Silicon Valley office park. For another, there’s no longer an empty desk in sight.

The robotics company currently employs 130 engineers, according to CEO Brett Adcock, who met me on site for a better look at the company's latest humanoid robot, Figure 02. Next year, Figure will be using some of its $1.5 billion in funding to move into new, larger digs a short car ride away.

Robots line the rear of the space, in various states of disassembly. Shelves, too, are packed with pieces of arms and heads by the dozen. A silver Figure 01 hangs on full display. I asked to photograph the robot, and was jokingly told it’s “old news.”

Since my May 2023 visit, Figure has opened the systems integration and testing wing of its current space. Adcock refers to it as “the back,” despite the fact that it’s really more off to the side. It’s here the robot’s many components are put through their paces.

The real show, however, is smack in the middle of the primary office space. Caged off from the row of desks, Figure engineers go hands-on with the robots here, testing for all manner of real-world work scenarios. There’s currently a heavy emphasis on automotive assembly, a direct product of the company’s recent pilots with BMW.

https://youtube.com/shorts/ibLv9RSWp5U?si=5SbAxNHzGTiW3VFx

Earlier this year, Figure robots were put to work for a couple of weeks at the carmaker’s Spartanburg, South Carolina, plant. According to Adcock, the company’s humanoids worked nearly around the clock, seven days a week. While moving totes is a key task, it’s not the only one the company is currently working on. Figure robots will be returning to the plant in January, this time for good. Adcock says the initial fleet will be in the mid-to-high single digits.

Automotive has proven to be the most eager to adopt the humanoid form factor. It makes sense: Carmakers have been deploying robots on factory floors for decades now. Competitors Boston Dynamics, Apptronik, and Sanctuary AI have all announced their own pilots with car companies.

And then, of course, there’s Tesla’s Optimus. Agility, meanwhile, is focused on consumer goods, piloting with Amazon and more recently announcing that its Digit robot had moved past the pilot stage at a Spanx factory.

1X, meanwhile, recently revealed plans to target the home. Like Figure, the decade-old U.S./Norway firm is well-funded, including backing from OpenAI. As we continued our walk through the space, Adcock motioned to a small portion of the floor devoted to testing Figure 02 in a home-like setup.

This is still extremely early days, however, both in terms of design and market. Among other things, the price of these machines will have to drop considerably when targeting consumers. Adcock says he believes Figure will be able to hit a sub-$20,000 price point — though certainly not this year. In the meantime, the company is testing 02’s efficacy for helping out in the kitchen and picking up around the house.

Our tour ended with a simple demo, with the robot walking toward me as I shot video. It’s come a long way in a short time. Last time I was here, the system hadn’t walked at all. Figure was testing the locomotion of its legs without a torso attached. The second-generation robot looks quite different, as well. Its predecessor's wires and boards are no longer exposed, and the battery backpack is no more. It’s now contained entirely inside the torso, alongside Nvidia GPUs and other processors.

In the video I took, the robot is supported by a gantry system. Adcock says the systems deployed in South Carolina were untethered, but for testing purposes it’s a lot more efficient to run them through different applications with their weight supported.

Even so, it’s always edifying to see these systems up close. Even if a robot video isn’t heavily edited, teleoperated, or some other trick of the trade, you never really know how many takes the robot required to get things just right. The real test, however, will begin January 1, when Figure’s robots return to the BMW plant.