In May of this year, TechCrunch ran a piece titled “Figure’s humanoid robot takes its first steps.” The story was a firsthand account of my visit to the startup’s South Bay offices. The headline was a reference to both the company’s first year of existence and its stated plan to hit a key milestone by its first birthday.
The company later confirmed with me that it had, in fact, managed to get its humanoid robot to walk. I asked for video evidence, which Figure refused to send — until now. Among other things, it’s clear the company wants to get a film crew to capture the bipedal locomotion. I tend to prefer raw laboratory video for stuff like this, but that’s probably one of the many reasons no one is asking me to run marketing for their robotics firm.
Two things jump out at me immediately: First, it’s good to see a non-render from the company. Thus far, their art has been limited to mockups of what the robot could eventually look like. Watching this footage is a reminder that there are many steps along the way to that futuristic bit of product art. Second, you’ve probably noticed that the robot is moving with bent knees, rather than the fully upright motion we see in humans.
Bent knees, on the other hand, are pretty standard in robots — you’ve seen it with Boston Dynamics’ Atlas and Agility’s Digit (though the latter has a reverse bend, similar to an ostrich). Bending gives you better control of balance and other important factors. Ultimately there’s a question of how important it is to hue to a more human-like gait, but obviously this first video of the Figure 01 robot walking is very much early stage. There are plenty of kinks to work out between now and a ship date.
The other thing I will draw your attention to is the hands. Mobile manipulation remains a key problem in this world, and many humanoid systems like Digit and Apptronik’s Apollo have yet to add articulated graspers. Of course, there’s nothing in this video that suggests the grippers are currently functional. On my visit to the company’s HQ, however, they showed me a portion of the office devoted to the development of what looked to be a five-digit, human-style hand.
The video notes that Figure’s headcount at the time of shooting (10/1) was 60. Impressive growth for one year. More updates soon, no doubt.
