Figure 02 is, for the moment, half an exciting robot, and you need only look as far as the new announcement video to understand why.
The video starts off promisingly enough. Figure AI’s Figure 02 robot, a redesign of the original Figure 01, looks more human than ever. It has a smooth head and fabric-covered neck, the arms have lost most of their steampunk look, and the hands are complete with 10 expressive fingers and fluid movement. Even in full, Figure 02’s narrow torso and slightly chunky legs could pass for a person from a distance.
As the robot appears to track its name being printed out before it, the effect is enhanced; movements are smooth, precise, and eerie.
Even the feet have a pleasingly humanoid shape, and the turn at the hip with the arms pulling back ever-so-slightly is a nice bit of physiological animation. The next bit might be the best moment, though, as Figure 02 raises its nearly perfectly formed hand (with 16 degrees of freedom) and looks at it as it turns the hand back and forth and flexes its fingers. Wow.
Sure, the face lacks any recognizable features and is, instead, a screen with the Figure AI logo spinning to indicate, I think, that it’s analyzing its environment. There’s also a single large camera where the eyes might be (Figure AI says there are six cameras on the robot driving its ‘AI Vision’).
Everything about this says, “Look at the future.”
Yup, right up until Figure 02 starts walking across a factory floor. The steps are halting as its legs appear bent at a permanent 15-degree position. The soles of its feet are stuck in a parallel position to the floor; they never angle or bend as your feet would. Its lovely hands and arms swing stiffly (and barely at all) as it trundles along. Another Figure 02 robot behind it fares no better. The walk is so halting that it looks lost. This is how humans would walk if we always held a grapefruit between our legs.
It’s also walking at a speed that would annoy any New York City commuter trying to get to his next train. I want to yell at the screen, “Pick up the pace!”
Perhaps walking doesn’t matter that much. Figure AI is currently testing the AI-enabled robot on the assembly line at BMW’s Spartanburg, South Carolina plant. In the video, the robot appears to be working autonomously on some undercarriage pieces, using its neural network to figure out the right way to assemble the parts.
Figure AI explains in the video that the robot is self-correcting as it learns. To be fair, it appears to be doing a decent job. One would hope that when you buy a BMW, you might be able to find a small label somewhere that says, “Partially assembled by a Figure 02 humanoid robot…pretty cool, right?”
The video does this well enough, but again, the pace seems incredibly slow. There’s a wide shot in the background that shows a giant purpose-built robot, mainly consisting of one arm working quickly. If the Figure 02 robot had any feelings, it might be embarrassed.
Figure AI has made a lot of progress in just six months, and the company has warned that its master plan could take decades to execute. Even so, this video is not the best showcase for its robots. If they can’t walk as fluidly as humans or even a Boston Dynamics Atlas or 2007 Honda ASIMO (RIP), then why show it walking at all? Even with the excellent hands and potentially impressive AI capabilities (driven in part by an OpenAI partnership), I could only focus on the poor walking skills.
Oh well, perhaps Figure 03 will arrive early next year and literally run circles around Figure 02.
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lance.ulanoff@futurenet.com (Lance Ulanoff)
