The humanoid robot, which received a “brain” from OpenAI, appeared in a new version – News List

The American startup Figure AI, which was founded just the year before, unveiled the second generation of its humanoid at the beginning of the week. work marked only as 02.

The previous one had the “name” 01, and as a prototype we gave it a comprehensive report, in which we also included an opinion from one of the Czech experts in this field from FEL CTU and you can see below. A video of the new version can be seen at the beginning of this article.

Figure AI’s second-generation humanoid “refreshes” every element of the original design, according to Robot Report magazine, and the company says it’s one step closer to its goal of large-scale robots. produced to sell to business users.

At the end of the text, we also talk about how the American start-up company achieved this leap forward – behind it is the strong support of investors from among large companies, including the most famous in the field. artificial intelligence (AI).

The first generation Figure 01 humanoid took its first steps at a speed of 1.2 meters per second (three to four times slower than a human walk) and was able to handle objects after only one year of development.

The video sample was shared with the industry this March and since then it has invested heavily in its other advancements in software, design, performance or even key-hand operation. It seems that the dimensions remained the same and can be seen in the image below comparing the robot and the competition.

The startup Figure 02 has already shared information about how many degrees of freedom (DoF) it has, or functions it can perform. The hands alone have 16, which is only six less than the new generation device Optimus from Tesla that should be able to handle it. And it can handle 25 kilograms of weight, which is again more than the 01.

The hand of the latest version of the humanoid from the beginning of America looks like a human hand – it has four fingers and another thumb. The goal of the campaign is the ability to handle things as easily as humanly possible. Each finger has a built-in drive unit with sensors and motors, and the new proprietary design also has a movable wrist.

The “skin” is perhaps the most surprising update to the robot at first glance. The prototype almost seemed to wear some kind of silver armor, and the second generation already has a matte black coating, making it look like the surface of some kind of sports car.

Part of this development is that all the cables are hidden under this “body”. With the first generation, it was more practical if they would be correct on the surface due to changes and repairs during tests, and now there is more advanced protection from the external environment, where something could happen to the device during long hours of work on it. the set, for example in a factory.

Another development was the battery, which has a capacity of 50 percent more than the prototype, which was supposed to last up to five hours on electric driving. You can count on about 7.5 hours of work. The battery is hidden in the torso of the humanoid, and its weight is closer to the center, which the company says makes the robot “more flexible.”

Figure AI for 02 also made custom motors to optimize the strength and performance of each of its joints, which are connected to their own distributions, that is the cables should rotate reliably around those rotating parts without limiting their movement – in shoulders, elbows, hips and knees, which are the four main parts of every humanoid.

Version 01 already demonstrated the ability to respond to human voice commands more than a year ago. This was primarily to facilitate an initial partnership with the company Open AIwhich develops artificial intelligence systems, has even promised its own software for the business and its robot.

The second generation already has three times more computing power and an AI interface, which, according to Figure AI, enables it to perform set tasks completely independently in a real environment. It is possible to communicate with a person with microphones and speakers on board, which uses a special program from OpenAI.

The new model is also equipped with six RGB cameras, which the humanoid uses to see the physical world around it. His equipment also includes a visual language model, which allows him to quickly process and understand this data. In fact, it can also avoid obstacles and, more importantly, hand-eye coordination by recognizing and grasping things in front.

Earlier this year, Figure AI sent one of its robots to a BMW factory in South Carolina, USA, for testing and data collection to train its AI model. According to the startup, there he successfully demonstrated the ability to work in the world business and learn to perform basic tasks.

Competing companies like Agility Robotics, Boston Dynamic or Apptronik has already sent its Digit, Atlas and Apollo humanoids to Amazon and DHL warehouses, and plans to send them to Hyundai and Mercedes as well. Tesla a Xiaomi then your robots Optimus a CyberOne they test their own activities.

In terms of large investments, the third round of financing finally raised $ 675 million, and the company is currently valued at two billion dollars. The startup has “put the pedal to the floor” in the race to bring autonomous bipedal robots to market in the next two to five years, according to company CEO Brett Adcock. They are expected to be used in areas ranging from manufacturing to warehouses to healthcare.

The first investors to attract others were the computing and software giant Microsoft, as well as artificial intelligence pioneer OpenAI, which at one point considered acquiring the startup. Both companies invested in it again and again.

Among the others were, for example, LG, Samsung, Amazon, through the ​​fund directly to the head of Amazon Jeff Bezos, but also Intel or Nvidia.