‘Uncharted territory’: Figure AI humanoid robots hit 24/7 nonstop work milestone
Figure AI says its humanoid robots have now crossed 24 hours of continuous autonomous work, extending what was initially planned as an eight-hour test into a nonstop multi-day operation. The California-based robotics startup said three humanoid robots running its Helix-02 AI system are autonomously sorting small packages around the clock without human control. The company livestreamed the operation online, where the robots were nicknamed Bob, Frank, and Gary by viewers. “Our original goal was an 8-hour run. After zero failures yesterday, we decided to keep going. We’re now over 24 hours of continuous autonomous operation without a failure. This is uncharted territory,” Brett Adcock, founder and CEO of Figure AI, wrote on X. The company said the robots have already sorted more than 28,000 packages during the ongoing operation while maintaining speeds close to human workers. The livestream has drawn significant online attention, with viewers continuously tracking the robots’ uptime and performance as the operation moved beyond its original eight-hour target. Figure AI also added visible name tags to the robots after commenters began referring to them as Bob, Frank, and Gary. Human-speed package sorting According to Figure AI, the robots detect barcodes, pick up packages, and place them barcode face-down onto conveyor belts using onboard cameras and AI reasoning. “Humans average around 3 seconds per package. F.03 is now around human parity. The robots are reasoning directly from camera pixels,” Adcock said. The company added that the humanoids are operating fully autonomously using Helix-02, its in-house neural network running entirely onboard the robots. Figure AI stressed there is no teleoperation involved in the process. “There is no teleoperation – every action comes directly from Helix-02,” Adcock wrote. The system also includes automatic recovery mechanisms. Figure AI said if a robot gets stuck or encounters an unfamiliar situation, the AI system can trigger an autonomous reset and resume work without human intervention. “If the robot gets stuck or the AI policy goes out of distribution, Helix triggers an automatic reset,” Adcock said. Self-maintaining robot fleet Figure AI further claimed the robots can independently leave the work floor for maintenance if software or hardware issues appear, while another robot automatically takes over operations to maintain uptime. “If a robot has a software or hardware issue, it autonomously leaves for maintenance and another robot takes over,” Adcock wrote. The latest demonstration builds on Figure AI’s earlier claims that its humanoid robots completed full eight-hour shifts autonomously using Helix-02. The company has also previously tested humanoid robots at BMW manufacturing facilities in South Carolina. Helix-02 is designed as a unified neural network combining vision, touch sensing, proprioception, and whole-body control. Unlike conventional industrial robots that separate movement and manipulation systems, Figure AI says its robots use a single AI model to handle walking, balancing, object handling, and coordination in dynamic environments. The company is competing with firms including Tesla, Agility Robotics, and Apptronik to commercialize humanoid robots for warehouse, factory, and logistics operations.
Source: Interesting Engineering