Six months after BMW signed a deal with robotics startup Figure AI, the Figure 01 bipedal humanoid robots are being tested at BMW’s Spartanburg, South Carolina production facility. Figure’s latest progress report shows how the robots could help in manufacturing jobs.
Figure AI and BMW signed a commercial partnership agreement in January that first saw Figure identify potential use cases for their general-purpose robots in automotive production, then begin staged roll-outs of the autonomous machines in BMW’s manufacturing facility in Spartanburg, South Carolina. “Single-purpose robotics have saturated the commercial market for decades, but the potential of general purpose robotics is untapped. Figure’s robots will enable companies to increase productivity, reduce costs, and create a safer and more consistent environment,” Brett Adcock, Founder and CEO of Figure, said in a January press release, by performing the tedious and dangerous jobs that humans don’t want to do.
The Spartanburg plant is the largest automotive exporter in the US, employing 11,000 people on a campus spanning 8 million square-feet. Workers there assemble the X3, X4, X5, X6, X7, and XM Sports Activity Vehicles. Over the past 30 years, more than 6.3 million BMW vehicles have rolled off of its assembly lines. The Figure 01 robots stand five and a half feet tall, weigh 132 pounds, and can carry up to 44 pounds of material at a time. They can walk at speeds up to 2.7 MPH and can operate for up to five hours before their batteries need recharging.
Figure’s robots were first tasked with moving bins and boxes throughout the plant’s body shop, showing their capabilities at grasping complex shapes, navigating and avoiding obstacles, and placing parts with precision. As their training and testing proceed over the next 12 to 24 months, their responsibilities are expected to expand to include performing sheet metal work and warehouse operations.
Figure isn’t alone in its efforts to bring robots to the factory floor. Earlier this month, Agility Robotics began testing its Digit robots at a Spanx factory in Georgia. Tesla continues to develop its Optimus robot and expects to begin production by the end of next year, though Tesla is famous for not meeting its announced goals. Remember when the Cybertruck was supposed to cost $40,000?
Source: Figure, YouTube (Figure)
