The figure plans to bring the humanoid home earlier than expected. CEO Brett Adcock confirmed Thursday that the Bay Area Robot Startup will begin “Alpha Test” of its Figure 02 robot in home settings in the second half of 2025.
Adcock’s comments arrive a week after Diagram announced its machine learning platform. Helix is designed to process both visual data and natural language input to accelerate the speed at which the system can pick up new tasks. Earlier this month, the diagram revealed that it is breaking a highly publicized partnership with Openai in favor of a unique AI model like Helix.
We have known for a while that the house is on the figure roadmap. On a recent trip to the company’s South Bay office, Adcock showed TechCrunch a very early home test in the lab environment. Last week’s Helix announcement shed more light on these plans, using a video of the robot performing a variety of home tasks, including food preparation. Helix is designed to specifically coordinate two robots working on a single task in tandem.
But like most competition and many rebellious teenagers, the numbers are robbed of household chores. Instead, companies are targeting more favorable industrial developments. In early 2024, the company revealed that it was operating a humanoid system at its BMW plant in South Carolina. Factory and warehouses are considered the first logical step in both testing and deployment. They are more structured and safer than homes, and automakers like BMW are happy to pay for testing.
Other humanoid robotic companies, such as Apptronik and Tesla, have expressed their own interest in bringing these systems into the home. In addition to a variety of household tasks, robots have long been seen as ways to deal with aging populations such as Japan and the United States. The support provided by these systems will help elderly people continue to live independently outside of care facilities.
Norwegian Startup 1X is one of a very few companies that prioritize homes. That’s a difficult road. In addition to price questions, homes vary widely from ones to the ones you have: People have left the confusion, with uneven lighting in the house, various floors, stairs, and often pets and small humans running around.
While the 2025 plan for the household is not entirely clear, “Alpha” certainly implies that the home test will remain in the very early stages of the rest of the year.
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