Figure Robotics’ uber-cool newest version of humanoid Figure 02 was revealed a few days ago. The company’s founder and CEO, Brett Adcock, released a demo video that showcased the robot’s dexterity and movements, predominantly showcasing its capabilities in a BMW Group Plant Spartanburg trial run.
“Figure is giving artificial intelligence a body,” said Adcock.
AI Gets a Body
Standing tall at 5’6” and weighing 70kg, Figure 02 is sleeker than its predecessor, with the most prominent feature being the absence of external cable for facilitating testing and repairs. The cables are now integrated onto the limbs.
In terms of computational and AI capabilities, Figure 02 surpasses Figure 01 with three times the computational power, enabling autonomous AI tasks such as speech-to-speech interaction and visual reasoning.
Additionally, it is equipped with six RGB cameras and an onboard vision language model, significantly improving its ability to perceive and interact with the physical world.
It’s All About the Hands
The enhanced hand dexterity of Figure 02 with 16 degrees of freedom is an impressive feat, considering that hand movements are one of the most complex parts of a humanoid manufacturing process.
Adcock said in a post that five-fingered hands are crucial for general robotics, but traditional roboticists often hesitate due to the complexity involved.
Given the minimal progress outside of prosthetics, the team at Figure had to design the hands from the ground up, covering everything from the mechanical structure to sensors, electronics, wiring, and control systems.
When compared to the Figure 01, an additional degree of freedom has been added to the thumb. The bulk has been reduced from the wrist, while the finger actuators remain within the palm.
Emphasising the importance of robotics arms, in an earlier interaction with AIM, Bengaluru-based CynLr Robotics founder and CEO Gokul NA said, “Wheels are more than enough [for robots in warehouses], but you need more capability with the hands.”
Big Tech Powering Figure 02
Figure 02 could be a perfect example of embodied AI or as Jensen Huang calls it, the physical AI. Referring to it as the world’s most advanced AI, Adcock is powering Figure with the help of some of the biggest tech players in the world.
OpenAI, Microsoft, and NVIDIA have been the prominent three powering both the hardware and software side of Figure.
Figure 02 has been built using NVIDIA’s Isaac Sim for synthetic data and generative AI model training. NVIDIA serves as a critical member in enhancing simulation, training, and inference through full-stack accelerated systems, libraries, and foundation models.
Similarly, Microsoft has allocated H100 NDs for large model training, and OpenAI has been instrumental in fine-tuning custom multimodal models on humanoid robot data.
Along with Figure’s humanoid, many companies are already using these robots at automobile and industrial plants. Interestingly, Tesla’s Optimus Gen-2 version was released in December last year.
Funnily, Adcock took a dig at Elon Musk after Figure 02’s launch as a challenge to the humanoids that exist. At the same time, demo videos comparing both Optimus Gen 2 and Figure 02 were doing the rounds, the latter being similar to Tesla’s.
While the friendly banter continues, big tech companies continue to focus on developing humanoids.
