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A 5'6" 154-pound worker walks around BMW's Spartanburg, South Carolina production plant. It places car parts in the right place and self-corrects its mistakes. It can also speak and respond to coworkers.
However, the worker is not a human being — it's a shiny new human-like robot called Figure 02.
The bipedal machine was released on Tuesday by Figure AI, a $2.6 billion robotics startup backed by big names in robotics and AI like Jeff Bezos, Nvidia, Microsoft, and OpenAI.
Figure AI claims that Figure 02 is the most advanced humanoid robot currently on the market. The startup designed the robot with the advantages of the human form in mind, giving the machine human-scale hands with human-equivalent strength. The robot can pick up objects as heavy as 55 pounds, coordinate both of its hands and put parts in place accurately, down to the millimeter.
Figure 02 also walks on two legs, speaks with enhanced voice communication, and has AI-driven sight with six sensors.
"Figure 02 has significant technical advancements, which enable the robot to perform a wide range of complex tasks fully autonomously," said Brett Adcock, founder and CEO of Figure AI, in a press release.
When BMW tested the robot in its Spartanburg plant, the carmaker found that Figure 02 could put sheet metal pieces where they needed to be. Based on the results of the early test, Figure AI and BMW are working together to find new applications for the robot in car production.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SRVJaOg9Co[/embed]
Unlike the Figure 01 robot that came before it, Figure 02 looks more polished, with less visible wires. It can carry more with its hands, up to 55 pounds compared to Figure 01's 44 pounds, and has 50% more runtime, for a total of 5 hours of work on one electric charge.
Though Figure AI specified that Figure 02 was ideal for physically demanding and unsafe tasks, a look at this human-like robot could spark fears about humans being replaced in a variety of jobs.
Recent news could also add to concerns: In April, Amazon decreased its human workforce by over 100,000 people while simultaneously bringing on over 750,000 robots. Amazon's $1 billion innovation fund is also focused on funding startups that combine AI with robotics.
Figure 02 in action. Credit: Figure AI
However, a 2022 study from Amazon-backed robotics safety startup Veo Robotics found that over half of global manufacturers (57%) think robots will assist, not replace, human work. Figure AI's master plan also focuses on robots supporting human work and filling labor shortages instead of replacing humans altogether.
"Our vision at Figure is to bring humanoid robots into commercial operations as soon as possible," Adcock said in February.
Related: This Company Built a New Kind of Robot: 'It Moves the Way People Move'
