Figure 03 Shows Impressive Skills, Just Not Human Ones Yet
Figure, a humanoid robot company, recently revealed their new robot, Figure 3, and it is designed to work in many places, like homes, factories, and for general use in other areas. The third generation of the Figure robot is pitched as a “general-purpose” robot that can perform human-like tasks and learn from people. It is impressive, but we are still figuring out what having on in your house really means.
The new Figure 3 humanoid robot gets new hands, a camera, sensors, and an AI system compared to last year’s Figure 2 robot. The robot can now see faster and react more naturally with more precise movements. In the videos, it is surprisingly smooth at picking up objects and carrying them around, but it still isn't perfect. The idea of having a robot that learns from people is both exciting and a little strange at the same time.
In video demos of Figure 3, it looks a little clunky when performing certain tasks, like when the robot tries to fold a shirt, but ends up with a wrinkly shirt. It can also do some impressive things, like picking up multiple items or moving around a house, but it still doesn’t have the movement and smartness of a real human. It’s moments like these that show how far we’ve come, and how far we still have to go before calling robots human-like.
The weird thing about the video demos is that everybody acts like it is normal to have a robot perform tasks. The calm reaction to Figure 3 almost feels like a look into the future, and how it might look when they come into homes. You could question whether this normalization of robots is good or bad for society.
Figure is trying to make the scalable, cheaper to building costs, safer to use, and the ability to charge wirelessly. They are planning to make Figure 3 at scale at the BotQ factory and want it to be customizable with clothes or company uniforms. That’s the big picture: a robot that doesn’t just exist in a lab but could one day be mass-produced for homes and workplaces.
Figure 3 isn’t perfect, it wrackles shirts and still feels like a glimpse of the future rather than the future itself. But it is a huge step forward for humanoid robotics.
Would you want a humanoid robot like this in your home? What would a humanoid robot do for you in your home or workspace? Do you think robots like Figure 03 will actually make life easier, or just more complicated? At what point does a robot become too human-like? Let us know in the comments!
Images, Videos, and Source: Figure