With many Americans now considering postponing their retirement because of a lack of accrued savings, inflation worries, and Social Security solvency concerns, that isn’t stopping one generation of robots from beginning to hit retirement age. And while these humanoid robots probably won’t be spending their twilight years in a retirement village down in Boca Raton, these machines have put in serious work and earned themselves a couple of injuries during their short work life.
Known as the Figure 02 (F.02) humanoid robot, these robots from Figure AI worked the factory line for car manufacturer BMW. Working out of BMW’s plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina, the Figure 02 robots helped produce over 30,000 BMW X3 compact luxury crossover vehicles. The robots also helped load an impressive 90,000 metal parts during their time working at the plant.
The program ran for 11 months, during which the robot crew accrued over 1,250 hours of system runtime. As the robots adapted to their positions, their abilities improved, and by the 10th month of the program they were able to complete full 10-hour shifts on the factory floor. Acquired data also showed that the Figure 02 units also had an impressive 99% accuracy rate when loading sheet-metal parts.
Lessons learned in retirement
Data taken from the 11-month testing of the Figure 02 robotic fleet will be used and incorporated into Figure AI’s upcoming Figure 03 line of robotic workers. The company noted that during the testing period, the Figure 02 robots faced only minor operational issues, the most notable being the robot’s forearm assembly.
This area of the robot features a number of systems that were tightly packed together. Because of the nature of how the arm works, this part of the design requires a great deal of dexterity. And due to the constant motion exerted on the forearm and wrist actuators, the units faced a number of thermal constraints. The data taken from these issues directly led to the team at Figure AI completely reworking the electronics in the arm unit for the upcoming Figure 03 for better functionality and reducing operational issues.
In the end, the Figure 02 was seen as a success for what a humanoid robot can accomplish on a factory floor. A few scraps and scratches along the way notwithstanding, the Figure 02 provided essential data to the Figure AI team and has earned a well-deserved robotic retirement. And with Russia’s first AI-powered walking robot falling on its face at a recent live demonstration, it just shows how difficult getting humanoid robots to market will be and how far ahead a company like Figure AI seems to be.
The future will be robotic
Humanoid walking robots that can interact with people and do basic chores around the home have been the dream of many. This fascination goes all the way back to early days of the science fiction genre, dating to 1907 and the introduction of perhaps the first robot in modern literature in the book “Ozma of Oz.” Today that dream is closer than ever, not only with the Figure line of robots from Figure AI, but from a great many companies that are trying to make their mark in the space.
Advancements in AI technology has led to consumer ready robots becoming the next big thing in tech, with the German company Neura introducing their 4NE1 robot earlier this year. Neura states that their robots are already active in enterprise settings, with plans to enter the consumer market in the near future.
California based company 1X has also introduced Neo, a $20,000 robot that is designed to handle daily chores at home. The company is different in that it plans on using early bird customers of the Neo as its beta testers. They state that the best way for its robot to improve and grow is to actually do tasks in real-world home.
