Claiming to launch the world's first universal humanoid robot, it also tried to challenge Boston Dynamics, but the result was just a PPT?

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Today, a robotics startup called "Figure" is launching "the world's first commercially viable universal humanoid robot" called "Figure01".

In the official press release’s description, it will “have the ability to think, learn, and interact with the environment, and is designed for initial deployment into the workforce to address labor shortages over time. Moving forward, leading the way to eliminate the need for unsafe and undesirable jobs.” The agency employs more than 40 engineers, most of whom have extensive experience working with humanoid robots or other autonomous systems.

However, what is surprising is that although the IEEE Spectrum official website has a special report on it, Figure company does not yet have any substantive products, and the promotional video is only a CG rendering.

In other words, everything is still on paper.

Why does a "PPT company" attract attention?

If a company makes it public with an ambitious "big picture blueprint" and some impressive renderings, but has almost no actual hardware to show, we generally call such a company a "PPT company" , everyone is generally skeptical of such companies.

However, Figure company seems to be different.

What’s getting people’s attention is their robotics team, led by Chief Technology Officer Jerry Pratt. Platt, who has worked at the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) in Florida for 20 years, led a team that took second place in the finals of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Robotics Challenge.

IHMC has established itself as a leader in robotic design and control through collaborations with DRC Atlas, NASA’s Valkyrie, and most recently Nadia. If someone wants to take a useful humanoid robot from an engineering concept to a commercial reality, IHMC is the best candidate.

Figure was founded in 2022 by Brett Adcock, who is also the founder of Archer Aviation, which has successfully built an electric vertical take-off and landing commercial airliner, Flight testing is currently underway. The company is self-funded to begin with but will close its first round of funding in the coming weeks.

"We think this is the best humanoid robot team out there," Adcock told IEEE Spectrum. "In total, this team has probably built 12 humanoid robots," CTO Pratt added. "We will have expertise in every one of the thousands of things you want to do for humanoids."

Boston Dynamics can achieve 50%-60% of human Capabilities

Initially, Figure doesn't expect to use too much new technology on their robot, "It will be a completely new design with very solid engineering." The robot Figure is working on is a " Commercially Viable Universal Humanoid Robot”.

Obviously, the video above is a CG rendering and doesn't show any real robots. However, these renders are based on CAD models of the actual robots Figure plans to build, so Figure expects their final hardware to be very similar to what they showed off today.

If the final result is this, it will be impressive: it is a very thin robot, which does bring some limitations to its performance. The robot is fully electric, 1.6 meters high, It weighs 60kg, has a payload of 20kg, and runs for 5 hours after charging.

The reason for this design, Platt explained: "Having a humanoid form - integration is really difficult."

Platt believes that, in general, using existing Technology, the robot can achieve about 50%-60% of most human specifications, such as degrees of freedom, peak speed and torque, but it will not surpass ordinary people.

As a result, the robot will focus on real-world applications rather than trying to push the envelope of pure performance.

" This line of thinking helped Figure constrain its design in pursuit of commercial utility: In order to work in a space designed for humans, you need the robot to be slim. Following this design philosophy, you don't get a A robot that can do a backflip, but you get a robot that can work efficiently in a crowded studio or safely walk across a crowded warehouse.

Obviously, the one Cue here is the Boston Dynamics post-conference Somersaulting Atlas.

Figure believes it currently has a chance to become the first company to build an actual commercially available universal humanoid robot, although Adcock and Pula Tedu noted that there's so much potential demand that they're not particularly worried about competition. "There's room for multiple companies to make this happen, and I think we can be one of them," Platt said. ”

Figure explicitly states in its master plan that achieving this goal "will require significant advances in technology." Here's what the company thinks it will need to achieve:

System Hardware: Figure is designing a complete An electromechanical humanoid robot with hands. The goal is to develop hardware with the physical capabilities of ordinary people. We are measuring this in terms of range of motion, payload, torque, transmission cost and speed and will continue to iterate through rapid cycles, each cycle as a continuum to improve.

Unit cost: Figure’s goal is to reduce the unit cost of a single humanoid robot through mass production and strive to achieve sustainable economies of scale. Figure is measuring costs by fully covered operating costs/hour. At high rates of mass production, Figure is optimistic that unit costs will be reduced to affordable levels.

Safety: It’s critical that Figure’s humanoid robots can safely interact with humans in the workplace. Figure will design them to adhere to industry standards and enterprise requirements.

Volume Production: Figure anticipates the need to deliver not only high quality products, but also very large batches. Figure anticipates a steep learning curve as we move into mass production after implementing the prototype. Figure is preparing for this with thoughtful design considerations for manufacturing, system safety, reliability, quality and other production initiatives.

Artificial Intelligence: Building an artificial intelligence system that would enable Figure's humanoid robots to autonomously perform everyday tasks has been one of the most difficult problems Figure has faced in a long time. Figure is solving this problem by building intelligent embedded AI that can interact with complex and unstructured real-world environments.

So, what is the actual status of Figure’s robot now?

According to Adcock, "We've just finished our alpha version... It's our first full-scale robot, we're going to build five, and we hope to have it in the next 30 days Let’s start taking the first steps. Now, we have begun production of the second generation hardware and software versions, and the rest will be completed this summer.”

Related reports:

​ ​https://www.php.cn/link/36455d3b4aa959a5a5799f2316c06660​​

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​https://www.php.cn/link/32b683d9d8e73d3eeb6bf08fe0817402​​

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