While Figure has significantly improved the design and functionality of its robot, it’s an important step toward commercializing AI technology. But the hardware side of the technology may still need to be strengthened
On the evening of August 6, Beijing time, Figure, a famous embodied intelligence startup company in Silicon Valley, launched its next-generation humanoid robot Figure 02. The company says it is one step closer to its goal of selling humanoid robots to industrial users.
Compared with Figure01, the black body of the second generation humanoid robot looks more cool; The cable package on the robot body becomes concealed. The company introduced a hardware and software redesign of the Figure 02, enhancing key technologies such as artificial intelligence, computer vision, batteries, sensors and actuators.
The new version of the Figure 02 is 5 feet 6 inches tall, weighs 70 kilograms, can work for five hours, can move at a speed of 1.2 meters per second, and has an electric powertrain. In a demo video released by Figure, you can see many close-ups of the Figure 02 hand. According to Figure, the new generation of dexterous hands has 16 degrees of freedom, the load capacity is equal to the human level, and can grasp 25 kilograms of objects, an increase of 5 kilograms over the previous generation.
In terms of specific performance, with the support of OpenAI’s large model, Figure02 can communicate with people through built-in microphone and speaker; The Figure 02 also has six RGB cameras embedded in the front and back of the head and body, which the robot can use to perceive the physical world.
According to Figure, the onboard computing and AI reasoning capabilities of the Figure 02 are three times better than those of the previous generation. This allows the robot to perform tasks in the real world with full autonomy, the company added. In addition, battery performance has been upgraded. The first generation had a battery life of 5 hours, and the Figure 02 battery capacity is increased by 50%. Brett Adcock, founder and CEO of Figure, said he expects Figure 02 to work about 20 hours a day.
Brett Adcock said that the world is facing a labor shortage, with more than 10 million open jobs in the United States alone, of which 7 million are in key positions such as warehouse, transportation and retail, and the aging population is also making it increasingly difficult for companies to expand their workforce. To break this social bottleneck and keep the workforce growing, companies need to be more productive, which means more automation to support it.
“Our first applications will be in manufacturing, shipping and logistics, warehousing and retail, where labor shortages are most severe,” said Brett Adcock.
Surging technology noted that for the release of Figure02, the industry view is that Figure02 still needs to be strengthened in terms of hardware. According to VentureBeat, although Figure has significantly improved the design and functionality of its robot, it has taken an important step toward commercializing artificial intelligence technology. It looks very convenient, especially in factory and warehouse environments, where businesses need robots to learn and handle different tasks quickly.
However, it is worth noting that the hardware aspects of the technology may still need to be strengthened. Currently, Figure 02 moves at the same speed as the average human walking speed, but in some specific situations, it may need to move faster, which is a problem Figure hopes to solve.
In addition to this, it is also necessary to consider expanding the range of motion of the robot to ensure that it can do more things in less time. That’s a question Boston Dynamics is also considering in its new Atlas humanoid robot series.
Another view is that the release of Figure02 represents a small step forward for robotics. While not revolutionary, the progress is still very optimistic given how quickly the industry is changing.
FigureAI is the darling of the investment community in early 2024. According to foreign media reports, the company has raised $675 million. With Figure AI’s deep pockets, co-founder and CEO Brett Adcock says he is “going all out” to bring autonomous bipedal robots to market in the next two to five years.
