Figure Accelerates Humanoid Robot Home Testing to 2025, Powered by Advanced AI

Figure sets humanoid robot home trails after shunning OpenAI brain

Figure plans to start Alpha testing its humanoid robot this year. Figure plans to start testing its humanoid robots in homes much sooner than expected. The California-based startup's CEO, Brett Adcock, revealed that it will begin alpha testing its Figure 02 robot in residential settings in late 2025. This faster timeline is due to its advanced Vision-Language-Action (VLA) model, Helix, which enhances the robot's adaptability and functionality. "Our AI, Helix, is advancing faster than any of us anticipated, accelerating our timeline into the home. Therefore, we've moved-up our home timeline by 2 years; starting Alpha testing this year," said Adcock, in a post on X. Last week, Figure unveiled Helix, a model that integrates perception, language comprehension, and learning control. According to the firm, Helix aims to solve several persistent challenges in robotics, marking a major advancement in AI.

Figure sets humanoid robot home trials after shunning OpenAI brain

Figure plans to start Alpha testing its humanoid robot this year. Figure plans to start testing its humanoid robots in homes much sooner than expected. The California-based startup's CEO, Brett Adcock, revealed that it will begin alpha testing its Figure 02 robot in residential settings in late 2025. This faster timeline is due to its advanced Vision-Language-Action (VLA) model, Helix, which enhances the robot's adaptability and functionality. "Our AI, Helix, is advancing faster than any of us anticipated, accelerating our timeline into the home. Therefore, we've moved-up our home timeline by 2 years; starting Alpha testing this year," said Adcock, in a post on X. Last week, Figure unveiled Helix, a model that integrates perception, language comprehension, and learning control. According to the firm, Helix aims to solve several persistent challenges in robotics, marking a major advancement in AI.

Figure will start 'alpha testing' its humanoid robot in the home in 2025 | TechCrunch

Figure is planning to bring its humanoids into the home sooner than expected. CEO Brett Adcock confirmed on Thursday that the Bay Area robotics startup will begin "alpha testing" its Figure 02 robot in the home setting, starting later in 2025. The executive says the accelerated timeline is a product of the company's "generalist" Vision-Language-Action (VLA) model, called Helix. Adcock's comments arrive one week after Figure announced the machine learning platform. Helix is designed to process both visual data and natural language input to accelerate the speed with which the system can pick up new tasks. Earlier this month, Figure revealed that it was breaking off its highly publicized partnership with OpenAI in favor of its own proprietary AI models like Helix. We've known for some time now that the home is on Figure's roadmap. On a recent trip to the company's South Bay offices, Adcock showed TechCrunch some very early home testing in a lab setting. Last week's Helix announcement shed more light on those plans, with videos of robots performing various household tasks, including food preparation. Helix is designed to specifically orchestrate two robots working on a single task in tandem. Like most of the competition and many rebellious teenagers, however, Figure has deprioritized housework. Instead, firms have targeted more lucrative industrial deployment. In early 2024, the company revealed that it was piloting its humanoid systems at a BMW plant in South Carolina. Factories and warehouses are regarded as a first logical step for both trials and deployment. They're more structured and safer than the home, and automakers like BMW are happy to set aside money for testing. Other humanoid robotics firms like Apptronik and Tesla have expressed their own interest in bringing these systems into the home. Along with a range of household tasks, robots have long been viewed as a way to address aging populations in countries like Japan and the U.S. The assistance provided by these systems could help older people continue to live independently outside of care facilities. Norwegian startup 1X is one of a very small number of companies that have prioritized the home. It's a difficult path. In addition to pricing questions, homes vary a good deal from one to the next. People leave messes, and homes have uneven lighting, various floor surfaces, stairs, and often pets and small humans running around. Figure's 2025 plans for the home aren't entirely clear, but "alpha" certainly implies that home testing will remain in the very early stages for the remainder of the year.

Figure's humanoid robots will take on your household chores this year

Figure's Helix AI brain enables robots to see and learn to do things in the world around them - and work in tandem Figure is leveling up its humanoid robot business far more rapidly than any other robotics company I can think of right now. CEO Brett Adcock just announced it plans to begin alpha testing its robots in the home sometime in 2025 - that's two years ahead of schedule. Adcock says the update to Figure's timeline is thanks to swift advancements in its Helix AI, which we heard about just last week. The Bay Area startup noted this AI brain was the first of its kind - a generalist Vision-Language-Action model, to be precise - to be integrated into a humanoid robot. The idea is to enable Figure bots to see what's happening around them, understand natural language, interact with the real world, and learn to do just about anything. But that was last week. Yesterday, Figure said Helix had been updated to enable faster and more precise motion, so its bots could take on package handling and sorting tasks - a key capability that would make them useful in warehouses. Figure had previously shown its robots performing household tasks in video clips - so today's news sounds like it's serious about sending them over to your place to help with chores soon. It'll race against OpenAI-backed 1X, whose sad beige humanoid is destined for housework. The San Francisco-based firm showed its Neo Gamma robot cleaning, serving food, and carrying groceries in a video last week. However, it hasn't said when it expects to begin shipping robot helpers, only that it's close. Also close on Figure's heels is Apptronik, which inked a deal with Google DeepMind last December to incorporate AI into robotic brains. Only yesterday, the Austin, Texas-based company announced its plans to put its Apollo robot to work manufacturing copies of itself on the assembly line. It too has home applications in mind, but those ambitions will likely be realized after it cracks warehouse and factory duties.