Bay Area robotics startup Figure recently announced that its humanoid robot, Figure02, will begin "alpha testing" in home environments in 2025. CEO Brett Adcock attributes the accelerated timeline to their proprietary "general-purpose" vision-language-action (VLA) model, Helix.
Shortly after announcing the Helix platform, Adcock revealed at an event that it's designed to process visual data and natural language input, significantly speeding up the robot's learning of new tasks. Figure previously collaborated with OpenAI but has since shifted focus to its own AI models, such as Helix.
While Figure has long included home environments in its roadmap, during a visit to the company's South Bay office, Adcock showed TechCrunch early home testing footage. The launch of Helix provided more detail on these plans, including short videos of the robot performing various household tasks, such as food preparation. Furthermore, Helix enables coordination between two robots to accomplish a single task.
Like many of its competitors, Figure didn't prioritize housework initially, opting for more lucrative industrial applications. In early 2024, the company piloted its humanoid robots at a BMW factory in South Carolina. Factories and warehouses offer a more structured and safer environment than homes, and automakers like BMW are willing to invest in testing.
Many other humanoid robotics companies, such as Apptronik and Tesla, are also exploring the possibility of bringing robots into homes. Robots are seen as a potential solution to the aging populations in countries like Japan and the United States, assisting the elderly and helping them maintain independent living without needing to enter care facilities.
Norwegian startup 1X is one of the few focusing primarily on the home market. However, this path is not without its challenges. Beyond pricing, the variability of home environments presents significant hurdles. Cluttered spaces, inconsistent lighting, diverse floor materials, and the presence of pets and children all pose difficulties for in-home robotic applications.
While Figure plans to begin home testing in 2025, the "alpha testing" designation indicates that it will still be in a very early stage of development that year.
Key Takeaways:
🦾 Figure plans to begin home environment testing of its Figure02 humanoid robot in 2025.
🤖 Helix is its newly developed AI platform designed to accelerate the robot's learning of new tasks.
🏠 Other companies are also exploring bringing humanoid robots into homes to address challenges like aging populations.