Figure is building a humanoid robot for industrial settings, with an early prototype taking shape through tests of its individual components. At the company’s Sunnyvale office, engineers were working on a metal hand, robot skeletons and a mock industrial workspace as the team prepared to bring the pieces together.
A prototype assembled through careful testing
The robot’s hand can open and close, an early step toward more involved tasks such as mobile manipulation. Figure founder and CEO Brett Adcock described the work as new: the team had begun testing five-finger movements the previous week. The hand was one of several components being evaluated before the prototype attempted its first steps.
Figure had been operating for about a year, with its first anniversary on May 20. The company had 51 staff members, including people who had worked at Boston Dynamics, Tesla and Apple. Its CTO, Jerry Pratt, had spent 20 years as a research scientist at the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition.
Adcock said the company was hiring carefully and had scaled its team to about where it needed to be. Figure had also created its own parts, alongside using off-the-shelf components designed for robotics and automotive applications. A small machine shop and a mix of industrial and desktop 3D printers let its hardware team prototype and refine components in the office.
Putting the robot to work around people
Figure’s office included a caged mock industrial setting with shelves, pallets and conveyor belts. The setup was intended both for testing and for showing the robot to potential customers and investors. Those objects represent the kinds of jobs the system may eventually be asked to handle, though the robot was still in an early stage of development.
Protective panels on the prototype serve a practical purpose as well as an aesthetic one. The panels cover the metal skeleton and help address hazards that could arise when industrial robots operate near people. The panels on the robot shown at the office were made of 3D-printed plastic.
Designing the robot to interact with people also means deciding how it should communicate. Figure was exploring a flexible, deformable OLED screen for the robot’s face. Rather than use eyes, the company was considering text as a way to convey information to human colleagues and indicate what the robot is doing.
The robot’s head also has a functional role: it houses some cameras and wireless equipment, while batteries and computing fill the torso. The robot uses individual 2170 battery cells, the type found in electric vehicles such as Tesla’s. Cameras elsewhere on the body include one intended to help the robot see ahead when a carried box blocks its view.
A crowded field with different aims
Figure is entering a field where several companies are pursuing humanoid robots. Boston Dynamics’ Atlas has demonstrated impressive capabilities, but the company has described it as a research project and has said it does not intend to commercialize the robot. Its industrial products include Spot and Stretch.
Tesla’s August 2021 announcement of Optimus, previously called Tesla Bot, helped draw attention to the commercial prospects of humanoid robots. Figure, Vancouver-based Sanctuary and Norwegian company 1X are among the other firms working in the category. Their designs share some similarities, which can make them easy to confuse. The article describes a news report that mistakenly attributed 1X’s robot to Figure.
That interest does not mean the machines are ready for widespread use. Figure’s displayed systems were the A/Alpha build, while the B build was expected to be completed by July and running in the offices by September. Those were development milestones, not evidence that the robot was already operating in workplaces.
Appearance and acceptance are part of the design
Humanoid robots can prompt strong reactions because people tend to read human qualities into machines. Figure’s dark, helmet-like design was among the choices that could invite science-fiction comparisons. The company’s display concept suggests another approach: communicate through visible information rather than a human-like face.
For a robot designed to work in human environments, appearance and behavior can shape how people respond to it. Starting in industrial settings could give workers a chance to encounter the system as a tool in a defined workplace. Whether the robot can perform useful tasks safely will depend on continued testing of its hardware, movement and communication.