Figure's Humanoid Robot Gets First Job in BMW Factory
TapTechNews July 3, about six months ago, Figure announced a strategic cooperation with BMW, and its general-purpose humanoid robot Figure01 will get its first job in BMW's manufacturing plant.
Figure has now released a video showing the latest achievements of its robot in training. Judging from the video, this humanoid robot can already engage in simple grasping work in the production workshop, marking an important step forward for general-purpose robots in industrial applications.
The video shows that Figure01 can place a car frame on the corresponding fixture, and at the same time it has to let the frame block the two locating pins that it needs to pass through the hole, which may be a considerable achievement for an AI robot.
Also, when it grabs the car parts, it can correctly recognize that it is holding it upside down, and can adjust itself according to the direction of the fixture, and then put it on correctly; and when it notices that it is not placed properly, it will also gently tap them with the back of its hand to correct its own mistakes.
According to the official introduction, Figure01 adopts an AI-based visual model that can achieve completely autonomous control, and is applicable to all grasping neural networks.
Traditional industrial robots are usually designed for specific tasks, while the Figure humanoid robot aims to perform a wider range of works and can undertake various complex, dangerous or repetitive tasks in the manufacturing process.
This may sound a bit like a fantasy, but currently many enterprises have developed similar humanoid robots. Although the AI models that train and control these robots may still be in their infancy, there is no doubt that they are progressing at an alarming rate.
At present, many companies are developing all kinds of AI humanoid robots using different hardware and learning strategies, but their goals are the same: to replace humans to complete manual work and complete these works with lower cost and higher stability.
Maybe when these machines start to speak, we will really realize how different they are from traditional industrial robots. In the case of Figure's robot, it uses OpenAI's voice engine and language model, and the details can be seen in the previous TapTechNews report.
There is still a long way to go for a truly versatile humanoid robot, but manufacturers hope to let them perform simple and practical tasks in real-world customer operations as soon as possible. This may be more for the purpose of collecting data and educating customers on how to work with these next-generation AI employees, rather than as a true source of income. In any case, the automotive manufacturing industry seems to be a key industry for the early application of humanoid robots.
