Figure AI Inc. has inked a deal with Bayerische Motoren Werke AG to have its robot work in the car developer’s United States' facilities.
BMW’s newest employee will be a 5’6”, bipedal, 130-pound humanoid robot, dubbed 01. Sunnyvale-based Figure has been working on the robot — which has two arms, two legs, two hands and a screen for a face — since 2019. It will be the first time a human-like robot will join an automotive line.
"Single-purpose robotics have saturated the commercial market for decades, but the potential of general purpose robotics is completely untapped," said Brett Adcock, Figure's founder and CEO, in a news release. "Figure's robots will enable companies to increase productivity, reduce costs, and create a safer and more consistent environment."
Figure’s robot will begin working in BMW manufacturing plants where the companies will first identify uses for 01. From there staged development will take place at BMW’s manufacturing facility in Spartanburg, S.C.
The end goal will be for 01 to assemble products and manage itself — for example, by taking charging breaks every five hours. It's something Robert Engelhorn, president and CEO of BMW Manufacturing, said would help the rapidly evolving automotive industry.
"The use of general-purpose robot solutions has the potential to make productivity more efficient, to support the growing demands of our consumers, and to enable our team to focus on the transformation ahead of us," he said.
In addition to developing the humanoid robot, both companies will explore research opportunities around artificial intelligence, manufacturing, robot-workplace integration and robot control.
While there are millions of robots in use today, most of them are designed for particular uses, such as installing specific parts on cars or vacuuming floors. In aiming to build a general-purpose robot, one that can handle many of the physical tasks that people do today, Figure foresees its bots, including the 01, could replace humans for dangerous or unwanted jobs and make up for a dearth of workers as the population ages, according to its website.
Last May, 01 took its first steps at the company’s headquarters in Sunnyvale, the company announced on its website at the time.
Adcock, who co-founded San Jose air taxi company Archer Aviation Inc., bootstrapped Figure with $100 million in funding to get it off the ground. In addition to that sum, the startup has raised $79 million in venture funding, most of that through a Series A round. The company has backers such as Intel Capital, Parkway Venture Capital, Bold Ventures, Tamarack Global, Kuka Robotics CEO Till Reuter, among others, according to PitchBook Data.
Figure isn't the only company working toward creating a general-purpose humanoid robot. Apptronik Inc. and Halodi Robotics AS, better known as 1X, are working on similar products. Similar efforts go back decades and include Sony's Asimo project, as well as projects from Tesla Inc., San Jose startup Anybots Inc. and defunct Menlo Park startup Willow Garage.
