Humanoid robot Figure02 will be tested alpha in home environment in 2025

Figure, a robot startup in the Bay Area in California, recently announced that its humanoid robot Figure02 will begin "alpha testing" in home environments in 2025. The company's CEO Brett Adcock said the advancement of this timeline is due to its self-developed "universal" vision-language-action (VLA) model Helix.

Shortly after Figure announced the Helix platform, Adcock revealed at an event that the platform aims to process visual data and natural language inputs, thereby speeding up robots to learn new tasks. Previously, Figure had collaborated with OpenAI, but has decided to focus on its own AI models, such as Helix.

While Figure has long included the home environment in its development plan, Adcock showed TechCrunch some early home testing situations during a visit to the company’s South Bay office. The launch of Helix provides more details for these plans, including short videos of robots performing various housework tasks, such as food preparation. In addition, Helix is ​​able to coordinate two robots to complete a single task together.

Like many peers, Figure did not prioritize housework, but chose industrial applications with more profitable prospects. In early 2024, the company piloted its humanoid robots at its BMW factory in South Carolina. Compared to the home environment, the structure of factories and warehouses is clearer and safer, and automakers such as BMW are willing to invest money in testing.

Many other humanoid robot companies such as Apptronik and Tesla are also focusing on the possibility of introducing robots into homes. Robots are believed to solve the problem of aging populations in countries such as Japan and the United States, helping older people to stay independent without entering nursing facilities.

Norwegian startup 1X is one of the few companies that focus on the home market. However, this path is not easy, and in addition to the price issue, the differences in the family environment are also very large. The messy home, uneven lighting, diverse floor materials, and even the activities of pets and children have brought challenges to the application of robots at home.

Although Figure plans to start home testing in 2025, the "alpha test" means that the test will still be in a very early stage that year.